With respect to rate sheet offerings from lender to lender, there are a few notable outliers at the moment.  Year-end/New-year pricing strategies as well as lenders' responses to last week's volatility have made for a higher-than-normal degree of stratification.  Some lenders are "business as usual," adjusting rate sheets in the same proportion to market movements as they were in November/December.  Other lenders progressively became more conservative and continue to lag the rest of the pack when markets are improving and to raise rates quicker when markets are deteriorating.

Mortgage rates improved moderately to begin the week, bringing most lenders back to levels not seen since January 2nd or before.  Following the Fiscal Cliff "mini-deal," FOMC Minutes, and Employment Report two weeks ago, rates rose at to their highest levels since before the Fed announced it's most recent buying program for MBS (the "mortgage-backed securities" that most directly influence rates) in mid September.  The Best-Execution rate for Conventional 30yr Fixed loans is back down to 3.375% for most lenders, though some still linger at 3.5%.

Mortgage rates improved slightly on Tuesday, extending their recent streak of improvements to 7 days. The calm movements in rates reflect a generally calm underlying market today.  That's a somewhat interesting development considering the events on the calendar last night and this morning tend to connote more activity.  In fact, markets were reasonably active, but that activity took place within fairly narrow trading ranges.  The mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) that most directly influence rates, began the day stronger vs yesterday (stronger = lower rates).  Though they gradually weakened into the afternoon, they never dipped into yesterday's levels.  

Mortgage rates were higher on average on Wednesday, though some lenders didn't move with the rest of the pack.  On one end of the spectrum, a few lenders were unchanged vs yesterday, but the bigger deviations from the pack were at the other end where several lenders moved rates significantly higher from Tuesday's latest offerings.  Those, however, are the exception to the rule as the average lender was just slightly higher in cost today with Best-Execution remaining at 3.375% for Conventional 30yr Fixed loans.

Mortgage rates shot higher on Thursday matching the quickest pace of the past several months seen at the beginning of January.  Although rates didn't make it quite as high in absolute terms, much of the recent recovery was erased.  In other words, we're now closer to early January's levels than we are to yesterday's levels.  The move was more than sufficient to bump Best-Execution for Conventional 30yr Fixed Loans up to 3.5% from the previous 3.375%.  Some borrowers may still have the same rate today vs yesterday, but in those cases, borrowing costs would be significantly higher, in some cases over one half of one percent of the loan balance.