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Mortgage rates have "slowed down" lately, making it easier for home buyers and rate shoppers to compare rates between banks.
Mortgage rates move like stock prices, changing all day, every day. The rates you see in the morning are gone by afternoon, and different by the next morning.
Mortgage markets change. That's what they do.
And, much like you can't buy IBM stock at yesterday's stock price, you can't get a mortgage rate at yesterday's rates. Yesterday's rates are (literally) yesterday's news.
We measure the speed at which rates change via "rate sheets".
Rate sheets are a lender's official mortgage rates for all of its offered products. They're called "rate sheets" because lenders used to print mortgage rates on sheets of paper, then distribute them to branch offices, REALTOR® offices, et cetera.
Rate sheets were a bank's way of advertising mortgage rates to the public.
Click here to get a mortgage rate quote.
Banks still issue mortgage rate sheets today, although few are done in print.
Most rate sheet are made online, and changed in real-time to reflect the current rates for FHA mortgage, conforming mortgages, USDA mortgages, and whatever other products the bank puts on it menu.
Lenders have slowed the pace at which rate sheets are made :
Assuming 8 hours in a mortgage day, September's mortgage rates changed every 5 hours, 10 minutes. That's a lot slower as compared to June, but still really quick.
When mortgage rates change every 5 hours, you lose the chance to "sleep on it", or even do a full day's worth of comparison shopping. Wait too long, and your rate is gone.
Shopping mortgage rates is not for the faint of heart.
As a consumer, "live rate quotes" escape you. They're not published on CNBC and you can't find them online. This is because it's expensive to access raw MBS data and licensing agreements keep loan officers from publishing them real-time.
There's some work-arounds, though. Most notably, you can follow me on Twitter -- I post market movements as often as possible. If you watch my feed, you'll know when rates are changing, and when it's time to lock.
Dan Green (NMLS #227607) is an active loan officer with Waterstone Mortgage. Email Dan ator click to get a free, no-obligation rate quote.
You can also find Dan on Twitter and Google+.
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