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Mortgage rate volatility returned last month after a relatively slow December.  Multiple-rate-sheet days outnumbered single-rate-sheet days nearly 4-to-1.  For home buyers in Cincinnati and parts elsewhere, rapidly changing mortgage rates like this complicates the mortgage shopping process.

What is a rate sheet?  It's a mortgage lender's "price sheet"; its available-to-the-public mortgage rates for its products.  Products include 30-year fixed rate mortgages, 5-year ARMs, FHA loans, and the like.  If the bank offers it, it's on the rate sheet and when rate sheets change, by definition, mortgage rates change, too. 

Over the last two months, mortgage rates have changed 2.19 times per day on average, or nearly 11 rate changes per week.  This is why that rate quote you got two weeks ago means bupkus -- there have been twenty-two reprices since.

In January alone, mortgage rates "expired" every 3 hours, 28 minutes.

Meanwhile, contrast this pace of mortgage rate change with the pace earlier in the decade. Back then, it was rare for lenders to issue multiple rate sheets in a week let alone 4 of them in one day.  The new velocity has changed the dynamic of mortgage rate shopping. 

"Think on" that rate quote all you want, but it's not going to stop the ground from moving under your feet.  When the rate's gone, it's gone.

So, the next time you're in the market for mortgage take stock of these 9 very good reasons why it may be in your best interest to lock the first fiscally-appropriate, low-rate mortgage that comes your way.  The longer you wait it out, the more chance there is of that rate -- or your ability to get it -- to be gone.

Instead of shopping for mortgages every 3 hours, 28 minutes, therefore, consider a new approach.  Find a mortgage lender you know will treat you fairly.  Buddy up with him by email, or on Facebook, or Twitter, or by some other means.  And when you're ready for a mortgage rate quote, just ask for one. 

As quickly as markets change, you can't possibly keep up on your own and it helps to have a friend on the inside.  Anytime you want a rate quote, call or email me.  I lend in all 50 states.

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