Mortgage Rate Price Tracker 🏠📉🔍 (FEB 2 – 20)
Monitoring the change in price of specific mortgage rates
Included in this post are the following:
THE TRACKER 🔭
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Most mortgages are sold into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and the price of these bonds determines rates for all banks and lenders.
However, mortgage rates DO NOT rise or fall. Instead, the price of each rate changes while the rates available to you remain the same.
The Mortgage Rate Price Tracker (MRPT) illustrates this dynamic by showing how the price of each rate changed within the time series.
The higher the rate, the lower the fee (points). Some higher rates pay a rebate; this is illustrated on the tracker with negative (-) points.
When the “total change” is negative it means a reduction in the price of the rate.
The MRPT is a “rate and loan program” specific example of the LendZen Index, which monitors a much broader set of rates and mortgage bond coupons.
Both are effective for visualizing how the PRICE of mortgage rates has changed, while the LendZen Index is published daily at LendZen.substack.com
WEEK 3 📉
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Since the LendZen Index has a variety of time series, the MRPT will focus on just the current month’s activity.
Attached are the results for February Week 3.
The rates in the VA 30 tracker now include 4.75%.
You can also explore the results for Week 2 on this previous Substack post.
OBSERVATION:
The short Presidents’ Day week was absent of any drama and hardly a wiggle from bonds.
The moves we did see were ever-so-slightly not in our favor.
Considering the strong performance the week prior, this minor pullback is barely worth mentioning and in the case of VA loans it was only visible on lowest rate options as rates designated to higher Ginne Mae coupons improved.
RATE RECAP ⏪
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The short week was uneventful despite the potential for a Friday crescendo with GDP, Consumer Sentiment, and PCE inflation.
Even news of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Trump’s tariffs barely created a ripple.
Prior to Friday, U.S. Pending Homes Sales created a minor stir with the NAR’s Monthly Index hitting the lowest level on record.
The tug-of-war between mildly warmer inflation (PCE) and gloomy econ data left bond prices the flattest we’ve seen in a long time.
The good news is this left mortgage rates near multi-year lows, although slightly worse than last week.
Insight into next week’s events, including the latest Rate Impact Calendar, will be posted in tomorrow’s Week Ahead.
Because of the uneventful sideways grind last week there will be no Data Deluge this Monday but stay tuned for updates throughout the week.
Meanwhile, check out this popular post explaining how to find the best deal when shopping for a mortgage.
Thanks for reading.
If you want to shop real-time mortgage rates and get instant qualification results without providing any contact information visit LendZen.com
LendZen provides a fully automated mortgage shopping experience that gives you anonymous access to all mortgage rates with full transparency of costs upfront as bond prices change.
You can also request an official Loan Estimate for the exact loan you created and save your scenario to revisit your rate options daily with one-click.
See for yourself and experience hassle-free mortgage shopping at LendZen.com
DISCLOSURES
LendZen Inc. is an equal opportunity mortgage lender, NMLS 375788.
