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Mortgage rates are improved from yesterday morning but higher than they were after lenders repriced for the better yesterday afternoon. It appears the stock sell off that happened yesterday was overdone. This was confirmed when Standard and Poor's downgraded Spain's government debt rating today, yet stocks still recovered from yesterday's lows. This resulted in investors selling risk-free Treasuries. Treasury selling led mortgage-backed security prices lower which forced lenders to offer higher mortgage rates this morning. ...

Reports from fellow mortgage professionals indicate lender rate sheets to be worse than Friday. The par 30 year conventional rate mortgage has risen to the 4.875% to 5.125% range for well qualified consumers.These rates are the most aggressive in the mortgage market, only very well qualified consumers will have access to these borrowing costs. To secure a par rate you must have a FICO credit score of 740 or higher, a loan to value at 80% or less. These quotes also assume the borrower is willing to pay all closing costs including an estimated one point loan origination/discount/broker fee. Your mortgage professional should be able to provide you with a breakeven analysis to determine the optimal fee vs interest rate. If you didn’t follow our LOCK advice from last week, that means you are still floating today. While lenders were likely conservative today, I am still favoring locking in loans. . ...

Mortgage rates were mostly unchanged yesterday as the economic calendar was empty and the market settled in for another FOMC statement. Prices of mortgage-backed securities did manage to move marginally higher following a successful auction of 2 year Treasury notes, which saw the highest demand in over a year. The small price appreciations led to scattered reprices for the better as secondary market gains held into the close, however it should be noted that reprices were not significant enough to lower the par conventional 30 yr mortgage rate. ...