by Calculated Risk on 11/19/2018 07:22:00 PM

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Maintain Recent Lows

Mortgage rates unexpectedly dropped to their lowest levels in more than a month as of last Friday. That assertion is at odds with quite a few media reports that cited Freddie Mac's weekly survey data saying that rates were essentially unchanged from the previous week. This occurred because Freddie's survey only captures the first few days of any given week and most of last week's improvement took place on Thursday and Friday. As such, this week's Freddie surveys should reflect that nice drop in rates.

How nice is "nice?" In absolute terms, we're talking about something slightly less than an eighth of a percentage point in terms of a typical 30yr fixed rate from the average lender. That's actually a fairly quick move relative to the average pace of mortgage rate movement. In any event, it's the nicest drop we've seen in more than a month, and it brings us to the lowest levels in more than a month as well. The caveat is that we're still fairly close to the long-term highs (highest since 2011).[30YR FIXED - 4.875-5.0%]
emphasis added

Tuesday:
• At 8:30 AM: Housing Starts for October. The consensus is for 1.240 million SAAR, up from 1.201 million SAAR.