by Calculated Risk on 8/05/2019 05:13:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at MortgageNewsDaily: Just When You Thought Rates Wouldn't Go Any Lower

Mortgage rates were already in great shape on Friday after having fallen to the lowest levels since November 2016. Rather than draw inspiration from the week's big ticket events (Fed announcement and jobs report), the biggest source of inspiration was a flare-up in trade tensions following Trump's announcement of new tariffs on Chinese imports. Trade war drama flared over the weekend as China's central bank set the country's currency at the weakest levels in more than a decade.
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Mortgage-backed securities (MBS)--the bonds that directly influence mortgage rates--have a hard time keeping up when financial markets are this volatile. Mortgage lenders also tend to proceed cautiously when dropping rates to multi-year lows in the midst of a these sorts of big market swings. That means mortgage rates haven't dropped nearly as quickly as Treasury yields, but they're nonetheless at the lowest levels since November 2016 today. [30YR FIXED - 3.5% - 3.75% (wider range than normal due to volatility)]

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph from Mortgage News Daily shows mortgage rates since 2014.

This graph is interactive, and you could view mortgage rates back to the mid-1980s - click here for graph.