Mortgage Rates Still in Tight Range

It has been a few good days for mortgage rates as they have come down in the tight range we have seen for the past 30 days as it was pushing the limits on Friday.  I apologize for not having anything yesterday as my son is home from deployment and I ended up playing hooky yesterday.

There is always some apprehension involved when we are waiting for rates to break out of a narrow, sideways range, but in the current case, it's made more tolerable by the fact we are very close to the all-time lows we saw four years ago. This morning we have seen some positive movement, but again, no real change in the pricing. 

The June Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) was a little better than expected this morning.  We also got some good news with a positive bounce in Weekly Mortgage Applications which improved by 7.1%, led by Refinances at 10.1% and followed by Purchases at 3.0%.

Today we have an important 10yr Treasury auction at Noon. The buyers of the 10yr are not always the same as the shorter term notes, but if we see the same kind of demand as yesterday's 3yr, then we may see an improvement in mortgage rates later this afternoon.

Oil is lower again as Saudi has been pumping out more than the markets originally thought. Low oil is positive for mortgage rates.

As I mentioned above, we have been in a very tight mortgage rate range.  I do not see anything more out today that should push us out of that range, so if you are floating, do so with extreme caution and watch the bond markets.  Again, I still feel that if you are close to closing in the next 15 days, lock it up.