Mortgage Rates: Current Mortgage Rates Showing Volatility – FHA Mortgage Rates Up

Residential Mortgage Backed Securities drive mortgage rates. MBS prices have been more volatile than usual to begin December. To start the month MBS prices shot up causing mortgage rates to rise 1/8%. Today we saw multiple ups and downs as MBS prices finished down leaving mortgage rates which move opposite unchanged. This type of volatility isn’t a good sign for those who haven’t locked a mortgage rate yet. It’s possible for mortgage rates to shift up to 1/2% in a single day. The benchmark 10 year treasury yield, a leading indicator for 30 year fixed conforming mortgage rates, is up to 3.32%.  If prices of MBS can hold steady just 1 more day we’ll surely have a new all time record low national average 30 year fixed announced by Freddie Mac on Thursday. The risk of mortgage rates going up has definitely increased over the past 24 hours.  Today the Fed revealed their beige book says economic activity is up in 8 out of 12 regions. Earlier in the week we found out the housing market is stronger than it’s been in the last 2 years. Tomorrow several major economic reports including jobless claims could swing mortgage rates in either direction. The Dow was down slightly today.

Current Mortgage Rates

Our research of wholesale lender’s current mortgage rates says while mortgage rates are higher than yesterday overall they’re still very near all time record lows. The current 30 year fixed mortgage rate is 4.625%, up from 4.5%. The current 15 year fixed mortgage rate is at 4.25%. up from 4.125%. The current 5/1 ARM rate is 3.625%, up from 3.5%.

FHA Mortgage Rates Up from Lows

The FHA 30 year fixed mortgage rate which bottomed out at 4.5% is up to 4.75% today. There’s risk that rate could worsen with several major economic reports coming tomorrow. Most major banks advertise FHA 30 year fixed rates at 5% no matter what rates are doing any particular day. We have verified 4.75% as a par rate at several wholesale mortgage lenders.