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Mortgage rates bounced back and forth in a relatively tight range before going out at their highest levels of the week last Friday. Although prices of mortgage-backed securities managed to rally of their lows of the day, most lenders did not reprice for the better. Reports from fellow mortgage professionals indicate lender rate sheets to be improved from Friday. The par 30 year conventional rate mortgage does remain in the 4.875% to 5.125% range for well qualified consumers though. When evaluating the risk/reward of floating, you have very little to gain by floating and a lot to risk. We have several high impacting events taking place this week which could pressure mortgage rates higher very quickly. With that in mind, if you need to decide on locking or floating in the next week or are within 15 days of closing, I would lock today. If you have a longer decision making timeline, I am floating on a day to day basis. ...

While benchmark interest rates continue to chop around in a contained range, mortgage-backed securities have moved sideways, failing to make much progress in either direction. Although we have experience a few moments of added volatility, tight trading ranges have kept and generally "topped out" MBS prices have kept mortgage rates stable all week, near six month lows. As previously stated, MBS prices are hitting a ceiling, unable to make enough progress to push mortgage rates any lower. Therefore, if you are still floating, it is time to take advantage of the aggressive rates lenders are currently offering. Eventhough there is room for benchmark Treasury yields to move lower heading into year end, we do not expect MBS prices to benefit from continued gains as the recent strong performance of mortgages has many investors thinking about profit taking....