Despite various prognostications yesterday that home loan mortgage rates might go down or drop, they instead stayed the same or increased on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. The move was a bit interesting, especially given the fact that public markets were closed today given the fallout of Hurricane Sandy on the east coast. Despite the disaster hitting the New York metropolitan area and similar major northeastern seaboard centers, lenders themselves remained in operation, offering and adjusting rates as demand and markets dictated.
The day's mortgage rate rise was not a big move, however. In fact the standard 30-year fixed home mortgage average rate which represents the bulk of the home lending market stayed the same at 3.375 percent. The movement happened within individual lenders and their respective rate sheets rather than as an aggregate average. Various lenders' umbers moved up and down, each one cancelling the other out so the market overall didn’t look like it moved anywhere at the end of the working day.Lenders and loan originators took consideration of today’s play and concluded the changes were just minor flutters. Many were and are still expecting a bigger fallout from the landfall of Hurricane Sandy, disrupting loan applications in process and business sentiment in general in the affected regions. The major impact from the natural disaster is expected to settle in over the next few days as the real damage assessments roll in, diverting or redirecting lender funds to the recovery efforts or stabilizing insurance companies being hit with their own "flood" of new claims.
Overall, mortgage rate averages for a 30-year fixed loan sat the same at 3.375 percent while the 15-year fixed solidified slightly higher at 2.875 percent. Five-year adjustable mortgages still worked in the range from 2.625 percent to 3.25 percent.
In terms of lender offers to consumers on locking prospective mortgage rates, lender sentiment remained the same in that various marketing offices still need to keep pushing that now is the best rates seen ever for borrowers. Lock probabilities continue to see less advantage for a lock and more risk as rates might go lower. Ergo, consumers should be jumping in now for new loans or refinancing.
