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Understanding Bankrate rate averages
As you look at Bankrate pages, you will sometimes see two, differing sets of rate averages for the same product. Bankrate has two sets of rates because we conduct two types of rate surveys -- one daily, one weekly. They're both useful, but they're samples of different groups and they serve different purposes.
The daily rate averages you'll see on the site in boxes labeled
"overnight averages" (we run the calculations after
the close of the business day). It includes everyone whose
rates we have collected that particular day for that particular
product. It tends to volatile and captures the movement of
rates day to day, but the institutions included will be different
from one day to the next, depending on whose rates we gather
and present on the Web site that day.
The weekly is called the "National Index" or "national
survey of large lenders." That's the one we quote in
weekly articles such as the Interest
Rate Roundup and our Mortgage
Analysis. To conduct the weekly National Index survey,
Bankrate obtains rate information from the 10 largest banks
and thrifts in the 10 largest U.S. markets. We've done that
survey the same way for almost 20 years, and because it's
done the same way, it gives an accurate national apples-to-apples
comparison.
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