Falling rates help everyone

Las Vegas - It's going to happen again and again and Valley West Mortgage will keep reporting on it. Rates keep getting lower and lower. That couldn't make us any happier. Please Note: The actual interest rate you were quoted last week will have changed this week. Based on raw data from more than 20 leading lenders as well as feedback from the MBS Live community, the average Best-Execution rate, before rounding to the nearest eighth, hit its lowest level on record, 3.81%. Although 3.81% is closer to 3.75% than 3.875%, we won't declare 3.75% to be the Best-Execution champ until the average from our lender survey falls to 3.75 or lower, and we're not there yet. Please call your Local Mortgage Lender to find out more details.

Last week, we noted a high degree of stratification in rates as lenders responded to the bond market rally at different paces. This continues to be the case today, but perhaps to a slightly smaller extent. When we say that rate offerings are more stratified, we're talking about various lenders offering increasingly different rates to the same type of borrowers. Among some lenders in our survey, best-execution rates are still at 4.0%, while the bulk have moved down to 3.875% and 3.75%. The important point here is to not believe everything you read about mortgage rates these days, unless the source examines multiple lenders and offers the caveat that they can only report averages while individual experiences may vary.

For instance, several lenders are priced WORSE today than Friday. It's far more important to be working with someone you trust in a process that is more likely to hit its deadlines than to go overboard in pursuing the lowest possible quotes. In the current market, overfocus on lowest possible rates can lead to delays which can result in a higher rate than the one you were originally trying to avoid!