by Calculated Risk on 8/29/2017 07:22:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Now Easily into "High 3's"

It's one thing for the highly competitive environment of "rate table" advertising (where lenders compete and you get confused) to be reporting mortgage rates  approaching the mid 3's. In fact, in that arena, rates have been in the 3% range for quite some time. Whether or not you'd qualify or even be interested in the specific scenario that is conducive to such rates is another story.

It's an entirely different thing for me to be telling you that rates are now easily into the high 3's, because I'm talking about the most prevalently-quoted conventional 30yr fixed rates for the average top-tier scenario across all lenders.  3.875% is now a given at almost any well-priced lender, provided you have a high credit score and a decent amount of equity.  3.75% certainly isn't out of the question for the best scenarios, and the aggressive lenders have no issues quoting 3.625% today for perfectly-aligned stars.

With all of the above having been said, please keep in mind that just a few "hits" to your scenario (slightly lower credit, lower downpayment, less aggressive lender) and you shouldn't be surprised to see a "4%" as the first number in your 30yr fixed rate quote instead of a "3%."
emphasis added

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 8:15 AM, The ADP Employment Report for August. This report is for private payrolls only (no government). The consensus is for 182,000 payroll jobs added in August, up from 178,000 added in July.

• At 8:30 AM, Gross Domestic Product, 2nd quarter 2017 (Second estimate). The consensus is that real GDP increased 2.8% annualized in Q2, up from advance estimate of 2.6%.