Rate Update October 8, 2009

Mortgage rates are essentially unchanged from yesterday.

Since mortgage-backed bonds rallied last Thursday and Friday pushing rates down to match all-time lows they have traded sideways on light economic data.

This morning retails sales and initial jobless claims each were reported and were reported to be better than expectations.  This is good news for the economy which is generally a bad sign for mortgage rates.  However, MBSs remain resilient.

We concede that mortgage rates may improve from these levels.  However, once mortgage rates begin to move higher we expect them to do so quickly.  This is why we maintain a locking bias.

Current outlook: locking