April was a crazy month for mortgage rates. Rates were pretty volatile this month ranging from 5.5% at one time for a low, all the way up to 6.25% on the high side. A .75% swing in a month is no small change. The interesting part is with all that movement during the month the end result is rates being .125% higher than they were on April 1st. After 30 days of wild swings we sit today .125% higher than we were on April 1st. This is the important trend to watch is that rates are moving upward. From day to day rates are swinging wildly but now we can see a pattern that month to month rates are increasing. We started the month at 5.75% dipped to 5.5% shot up to 6.25% and now sit at 5.875%: roller-coaster.
There are still a lot of people holding out for “lower rates” and we may get there. The problem now is that rates have to “drop” just to get back to where they were 2 months ago, and then would have to “drop” again to get lower?
There is only one way to get the lowest rate and its pure luck. You have to just happen upon the day that rates are at there lowest, there is no way to time it or predict it. If there was I would be a bond trader and not a mortgage lender.
We have some strong economic data coming our this week we need to keep our eye on. If rates do not come down this week, I think we will have reset into this new rate range until something even more terrible happens in the economy.