By: Matthew Graham

Mortgage Rates Hold Ground at Multi Month Lows

Aug 12 2015

Mortgage rates were lower at first today, but most lenders sent out negative reprices in the afternoon, bringing rates back to unchanged levels.  The bond markets that underlie mortgage rate movement continued taking cues from global volatility surrounding yesterday's big news out of China.

Whereas yesterday was more of a free-fall for all manner of interest rates, today saw them find a bottom and reverse course.  Whether the bottom is temporary remains to be seen.  Either way, it leaves us in a slightly less optimistic position.

We're still in the early stages of determining what the lasting effects will be from the China news.  There's no great way to account for the potential effects in lock/float strategy.  On the one hand, rates were as low as they've been in more than 2 months today.  Locking can't be argued against with that in mind.  But risk-takers might want to wait until a bigger move lower can be ruled out, as long as they understand the potential costs if rates move higher.

Lenders continue quoting conventional 30yr fixed rates in a range of 3.875-4.0% for top tier scenarios, with a few lenders on either side of that range by an eighth of a point.