Today’s Mortgage Rates Steady Below 5 Following Fed “Text”

Prices of mortgage-backed securities declined for the second day in a row today. Mortgage rates, which move opposite mortgage-backed securities prices, were unchanged. Pricing though, which effects closing costs, worsened this afternoon. In other words whatever it may have cost you to secure a 4.75% 30 year fixed mortgage yesterday, it’ll cost just a little more to get that same rate today. The Fed, as expected, outlined their exit strategy today with only broad details leaving open lots of possibilities including keeping short term interest rates low for more than just a few months. Fed chairman Bernanke was unable to make the announcement in person and answer questions due to the epic D.C. snowstorm and intead provided a text of the broadly detailed plan. The benchmark 10 year treasury yield, a favorite indicator of mortgage loan officers to predict conforming and FHA mortgage rates, rose + 0.04 to 3.68 today.

According to FreeRateUpdate.com, who researches over 2 dozen wholesale mortgage lender’s rate sheets and reports mortgage rates at par on a daily basis, current 30 year fixed mortgage rates are as follows. The current conforming 30 year fixed mortgage  rate at par is 4.75%, unchanged on the week. The current FHA 30 year fixed rate is the same, 4.75%, but with much higher closing costs. The current jumbo 30 year fixed rate at par is 5.75%.