As mortgage rates climb, beware of not accurate quotes

St Paul, MN: Mortgage rates the last few weeks have climbed steadily on the statement from the Federal Reserve that they plans to scale back, and ultimately end the buying of Mortgage backed Securities by the middle of 2014.

This news translated into mortgage rates having one of the worst weeks in history, with Friday alone generating a 1/4% rise in interest rates. While 1/4% isn’t a killer by itself, combined with the rate increases from the earlier part of the week, the combination proves to be a nightmare for mortgage rates. Real mortgage rates ending Friday for the best clients are now about 4.625%.  This compares to 3.50% just a month ago.

I took numerous calls this week, where clients complained about the rate I was telling them compared to what they were reading elsewhere for “average rates.”  Most of the average rate information published on web sites, newspapers, and reported by the media comes from the weekly rate report published by Freddie Mac.  While the report is great for tracking averages over time, it is the AVERAGE of rates compiled through the end of the previous week, then reported on the following Thursday.

If you are buying Google stock, does it matter what last week average price was, or what you can buy if for today?  Only rely on constantly updated and accurate rate reporting system, or while a phone call to a Loan Officer.

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