Another 11-Month Low For Rates, But Just Barely

To their credit, most mortgage lenders did an admirable job of aggressively pricing-in the bond market rally after last Friday's jobs report. Many mortgage market pros repeat the phrase "stairs down, escalator up" when it comes to the pace at which lenders change rates. The idea is that lenders are quicker to raise rates than cut them, but this clearly wasn't the case this time. Because of that healthy level of aggression, there wasn't as much room for improvement at the start of the new week compared to other Mondays that follow weak jobs report numbers. Case in point, after the August 1st jobs report, the following Monday accounted for more than a quarter of the 2-day drop in rates.  Compare that to today which only accounted for about 5% of the 2-day drop. But gains are gains, and the small improvement brings the average top tier 30yr fixed rate to another 11-month low. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]