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Since the Fed made its emergency rate cut in January 2008, we've talked a lot of mortgage rate volatility.  Some days up, some days down, most days all over the place.

This pie chart should help put it in perspective.

Over the last 60 days, mortgage rates changed twice daily on average -- once in the morning, and once in the afternoon.  On a quarter of the days, they changed 3 times.

Mortgage rate shopping ain't as easy as it used to be, folks. 

No longer can rate quotes at 9:00 A.M. be compared to rate quotes at noon and there are two ways to help navigate the storm:

1. Do your rate shopping in a compressed timeframe.  Think minutes, not hours.
2. Ask your loan officer: "Was there a recent reprice, or do you expect one soon?"

If you don't want to do these things (or don't have the time to do it properly), know that you are welcome to reach out to me directly by phone or email.  I enjoy working with my readers on their personal home loans and hope you'll remember that I not only write blogs, but I write mortgage loans, too.

See, mortgage markets are different from a year ago when markets "knew" that the economy was experiencing runaway expansion; or, six months ago, when markets "knew" that the economy was experiencing rapid contraction.

Today, nobody knows anything for sure. 

Economic experts can't figure out whether the U.S. economy is expanding or contracting and that's why each financial quake, blip and tremor sends mortgage markets into a frenzy -- market players are seeking equlibrium. 

The inevitable result is that mortgage lenders freeze pricing on the double and re-issue new rate sheets that reflect the market's new balance.

And as long as uncertainty about the economy persists, mortgage rates should continue to yo-yo.  Sometimes two, three or four times per day.

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Dan Green is an active loan officer. Email or call 513-443-2020. Dan is on Twitter at @mortgagereports.