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There's an old adage in the mortgage business: "Mortgage markets take the stairs down and the elevator up."  It's supposed to mean that mortgage rates rise faster than they fall.

It turns out the saw has no teeth.

Looking at data from the last 14 months, at nearly every price change delta of consequence, mortgage price improvements outnumbered deteriorations. An "improvement" pushes mortgage rates lower.  A deterioration moves them higher.

• Daily change of 0.2500 : 18 improvements, 8 deteriorations
• Daily change of 0.3125 : 27 improvements, 20 deteriorations
• Daily change of 0.3750 : 4 improvements, 11 deteriorations
• Daily change of 0.4375 : 13 improvements, 10 deteriorations

The trend continues at the higher price change points, of which each is a huge, one-day change in pricing. A 0.500 pricing change can move mortgage rates by as much as a quarter-percent.

• Daily change of 0.5000-0.7500 : 18 improvements, 15 deteriorations
• Daily change of 0.7500-1.000 : 8 improvements, 3 deteriorations
• Daily change of greater than 1.000 : 10 improvements, 11 deteriorations

Another interesting observation is that on the days of nominal price change, the day on which pricing changed by less than 25 basis points, markets tended to worsen.  From this pattern, we can infer that traders want to move mortgage pricing higher but don't have the conviction to make it stick long-term.

Which, of course, brings us to the other well-known saying: "Don't fight the Fed."  So far this year, that saying has held true.

Mortgage rates are based on mortgage-backed securities pricing and I get my data from MBSRateWatch in real-time. If you don't subscribe but need to stay current on rates, follow me on Twitter or on Facebook.  I often post updates when markets are moving and that can mean the difference between getting a good rate and getting a bad one.

Mortgage rates aren't changing as quickly as they did this summer, but they're still changing pretty quickly.

Over the last two month, on average, lenders have updated pricing every 4 hours, 11 minutes. Over the last week, it's 3 hours, 20 minutes.

It's tough to shop for mortgage rates at a time like this.

Look, I'm a guy who studies mortgage markets for a living so consider my advice for when you're rate shopping.  Unless you're willing accept a higher mortgage rate, stop trying to beat the market for a lower one. More often than not, you're going to lose.

This is especially true because mortgage rates tend to rise a lot faster than they fall.  We even having a saying about it in the business: Mortgage rates take the elevator up and the escalator down.

Therefore, as you're doing your rate shopping, remember that saving money is saving money and there's almost never a reason to hold out for that extra 1/8 percent.  An 1/8 percent equates to a nominal amount of money that won't change your retirement or fund your next home improvement project.  Moral victories aren't worth gambling for.

Mortgage rates change.  That's what they do.  So if you're in the market for one, it helps to know what the market's doing.

You have two ways to stay on top of rates in near-real time.

1. Follow me on Twitter.
2. Fan this blog on Facebook.

Or, let's make it more personal.

Call or and we can talk about your mortgage rates needs. I'm licensed in a lot of states and if I can't help you personally, I'm happy to direct you to someone that can.

Either way, get a move on. In just a few hours, that rate quote you're staring at is going to be expired.