It’s Time To Refinance : Mortgage Rates Are Officially Lower Than They’ve Ever Been

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As a mortgage rate shopper in Cincinnati, geopolitics can either be your dream or your nightmare.

Lately, it's been the former.

Mortgage Rates React To Politics

The mortgage market is a living, breathing organism, susceptible to outside influence.

Some influences are easy for which to prepare.  We call them "calendared" events.  Things like the release of Existing Home Sales data, jobs numbers or an FOMC meeting -- these are events we know are coming and for which we can devise a rate lock strategy.

It's the non-calendared events, however, that can throw the markets for a loop.  You can't make a plan for something if you don't know it's coming.  You can only hope the market moves in your favor.

Right now, we're in the midst of a 7-week, non-calendared event.

• Late-March : Greece debt problems start to surface
• Early-April : Eyjafjallajokull erupts in Iceland
• Mid-April : Greece debt problems worsen
• Late-April : Civil unrest in Greece and PIIGS contagion fears
• Early-May : Greece contagion spreads to Eurozone

And then today, North Korea is threatening military action against South Korea.

Markets can't prepare for non-calendared events like they can a jobs report.  For example, if the jobs report is stronger-than-expected, we know that mortgage rates will rise. If the jobs report is worse-than-expected, we know that mortgage rates will fall.

With geopolitical happenings, on the other hand, we often have no basis.  Markets react on emotion rather than fact and it makes for a wild, rickety roller-coaster ride. Mortgage rates end up changing multiple times per day, and make big movements at a time.

North Korea + Eurozone = The Lowest Mortgage Rates Ever

Thankfully for rate shoppers, geopolitics have been pushing mortgage rates down. Way down.

As of the time of posting, 30-year fixed conforming mortgage rates have moved lower on the day and now successfully pushed through to their lowest levels of all-time.

Let's say it again : Of all time.

Now, this isn't true for all loans, of course. We're only talking about conforming mortgages.  Mortgage rates on many jumbo and super-jumbo loans are actually getting worse.  The same is true for certain portfolio products.  This is because mortgage rates on these products is not based on the mortgage-backed securities market -- they're based on bank-risk and bank-risk is growing.

Seriously -- Make Time To Get Yourself A Rate Quote

The problem with markets run by fear is that fear can quickly turn to greed.  And when it does, low mortgage rates start to go away.  Get in touch with your loan officer right away and find out if refinancing is an option.

If you can save some cash each month plus find a reasonable break-even point on your loan's costs-vs-savings, get it done. The math is favorable right now and you've got North Korea to thank for it.

A few pointers for getting low rates:

1. Try not to take too long in the "shopping" process. Rates can rise by 1/4 percent at a time while you're jockeying to save an eighth.  You'll lose in the end.
2. Try to call a loan officer directly and not the call center number on your statement.
3. Watch my Twitter feed for near-real time market updates. You'll want to know what the market is doing.

And, if you don't have a loan officer to call, you can always call or. I am an active loan officer, I answer all my own emails, and my rates are as low as anyone's. Make sure you mention you read my blog, too.