Greg McBrideCFA, Senior financial analyst, Bankrate.comThe fear trade is still on, but mortgage rates haven't dropped nearly as much as benchmark Treasury yields. If you haven't locked yet, do it now. This is probably the bottom for mortgage rates.
Kevin BreelandGeneral manager, Residential Mortgage of South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, S.C.My projection for the next seven days is unchanged. The European debt crisis, China's slowing economy and sluggish jobs will keep up the flight to quality in bonds. Therefore, I do not see any change in rates.
David KuiperMortgage planner, First Place Bank, Holland, Mich.We've seen a nice rally in mortgage-backed securities over the past week or so and have seen interest rates improve by about 0.25 percent. International financial and political drama continue to foster an attractive environment for bonds, which is where pricing for mortgage interest rates comes from. This negative news continues to drown out the small positive economic data that has been released lately, which ordinarily would put pressure on interest rates to rise. Mortgage interest rates are once again at their all-time low levels, and now is an incredible time to take advantage of them, as we will likely never see rates at this level again in our lifetime.
Jeff LazersonPresident, Mortgage Grader, Laguna Niguel, Calif.Fixed rates are as low as they are going to go in the near term. The latest global economic crash is actually helping to stimulate U.S. home sales and refinancing -- talk about bittersweet.
Dick LepreSenior loan officer, RPM Mortgage, San FranciscoThere seems to be a resistance when we get to 30-year fixed conforming at 4.875 percent with no points. If my memory serves me (a dubious proposition), this is the sixth time we have been there in the last two years. Even when the 10-year Treasury is driven to 3.1 percent by angst, mortgages seem to go no lower. So, the techs are all bullish (higher prices, lower yields) and there is anxiety over eurozone debt and Korea, but we see mortgage rates stuck. The bigger picture I see is of global economic stagnation. Public debt is hurting Europe, and states and cities in the U.S. will have to start dealing with it.
Mitch OhlbaumLoan officer, Bank of America, Los AngelesThe 10-year is down again to 3.17 percent. Rates did decline a bit last week and have bumped up slightly in the last few days. There is a huge push to buy Treasuries, which is keeping rates down for the near term. Inflation is nowhere in sight at this point, again proving the experts wrong. As I said in the last few weeks, the lenders as well as the government are taking this opportunity to increase their spreads and make up some of the lost money.