dsmil wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:28 pm
ChiKid24 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 2:19 pm
dsmil wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:46 pm
I've already locked with better.com and I talked to my better.com "processing expert" yesterday. He said that I can still present competing offers that they will try to match or beat. Also, if the weekly Freddie Mac rate drops .25%, you can float down .125% at no cost. Your weekly Freddie Mac rate would be the one that posted today which was 3.21%, so you can ask for the float down if that weekly rate gets to 2.96% (assuming 30 yr). The rate posts each Thursday and the link is below.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US
Interesting. Is this no cost float down in writing somewhere? Also what date/rate do they use as your reference rate? I locked on May 27, which was a Wednesday. The rate from the prior Thursday according to your link was 3.24%. But the rate from May 28 (the day after I locked) went down to 3.15. Would I need the .25% to be from 3.24% or 3.15%?
I didn't see it in writing but I asked my contact for their policy, and he sent me an email saying basically what I said above. The reference point is the Thursday after your lock, so May 28th (same as mine). We didn't get any help with the weekly update today but next week's could be lower based on how the week has started. But seeing how rates have dropped the last couple of days, I'm already hunting for another competing quote for them to match or beat.
When Better.com was trying to convince me to lock and proceed, they mentioned their one-time courtesy float down policy in an email. I locked on Friday, June 5, and they told me on the phone that it has to go down 0.25% from the 30 year mortgage average (even though I'm doing 15 yr) published on Thursday, June 4 (i.e., the rate that has already been published when locking). Looks like others were told to look at the first rate that gets published following rate lock, as the baseline.
Regardless, I think the timing is a bit unfortunate for me, because the 30-year fixed rate mortgage average published on stlouisfed.org is actually Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey (
http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/). They explain that the rates reflect loans offered
Monday through Wednesday:
Survey reminder emails are sent out on Mondays and lenders are asked to respond by close of business Wednesday. If we have received no response on Tuesday, we follow-up with a reminder email on Wednesday morning. We receive a few responses on Monday, but most responses are returned on Tuesday with the balance received on Wednesday. So, in general, the PMMS rates reflect loans offered Monday through Wednesday
Last week, 10 year treasury rate shot up toward the end of the week, peaking on Friday, which is when I locked. Since then it's been on a downward trend. Freddie Mac's June 4 and 11 published rates don't include the rates offered on Friday, June 5 when the 10 year treasury rate was the highest since March.