Mortgage Rates Drop Sharply, Hitting Lowest Levels Since Mid-September
Mortgage rates had been in a holding pattern for nearly 3 weeks following the November 10th CPI inflation data. On that single day, the average 30yr fixed rate fell by a record amount (as far as day-over-day record keeping is concerned) and there they’ve stayed until this morning. The timing of today’s improvement depends on the lender in question to some extent.
Some lenders offered fairly aggressive improvements yesterday in response to a well received speech from Fed Chair Powell and stronger than expected bond buying as a part of the month end trading process. Today, those friendly events happened early enough in the day that most lenders were able to adjust their rates accordingly when setting new rates at close of business last night.
All that needed to happen was for the bond market to hold relatively steady overnight. It did. The result is easily the best day of improvement since November 10th, and one of the better days of 2022. The average borrower would be seeing rates that are 0.25% lower versus yesterday morning at the average lender (i.e. 6.5% is now 6.25%).
