April 19, 2016
On Monday, mortgage rates closed out the trading day holding at recent lows. There are some important economic data releases coming and there’s a meeting of the European Central Bank scheduled for Thursday–all, some, or none of these may affect rates depending on investor reaction to data and announcements that follow these events. Also, rates can also be influenced by breaking news or unexpected events that cause investors to react in ways that influence mortgage loan interest rates.
However, those rates are low at the moment and holding there, but factors like the ones mentioned above could put upward pressure on rates, making the “lock or float” choice more complicated, especially for those with closing dates in the next month or so.
At the time of this writing, 30-year fixed rate conventional mortgages are holding at a best execution 3.625, though some sources report lenders going to 3.5% or even lower with some of the more competitive lenders.
FHA mortgage rates are still at 3.25%, best execution. According to several sources, rates are likely to hold here and resist further adjustments downward, but breaking news, economic factors or changes to those factors can always create situations where the unexpected happens. The best advice is to expect the unexpected.
Remember, best execution rates listed here assume ideal conditions-your financial qualifications such as FICO scores and credit history will play a big role in determining your access to rates like these. The rates listed here are not available from all lenders or to all borrowers. Your experience may vary.
For those on the fence about locking or floating, this can make the decision tougher, but with rates as low as they are now, many industry pros say “there’s nothing wrong with locking here”. If you choose to float, it’s important to evaluate your risk tolerance and decide how high rates might go before you cut your losses and make a mortgage rate lock commitment with your lender.
Do you work in residential real estate? You should know about the free tool offered by FHA.com. It is designed especially for real estate websites; a widget that displays FHA loan limits for the counties serviced by those sites. It is simple to spend a few seconds customizing the state, counties, and widget size for the tool; you can copy the code and paste it into your website with ease. Get yours today:
http://www.fha.com/fha_loan_limits_widget
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
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