Conforming Mortgage Rates Fall, Unlikely To Stay

This week’s latest press reports on mortgage rates–which are always about one week late and therefore not relevant–show that rates are down. Note that anything that’s published in the press is in reference to conforming loan rates unless otherwise specified. Also you will see in this story that it discusses average points on conforming loans. This means that the average rates also carry the average points to get those rates. Again, it all means that the data is not relevant until you examine your own profile with a lender.

The correct and relevant part of this particular report is that it says rates may not stay low because of rate market volatility. See our Marketweek column for detailed discussions of rate movement week to week. Mortgage-backed bonds have been trading close to levels they’ve been unable to break above for three years. If there’s any sign that the credit crunch is subsiding, the Fed will immediately start raising rates again and bonds will react strongly and sell off, pushing rates up.