Mortgage rates have been volatile recently, with 3 out of the past 5 business days seeing much-bigger-than-average moves.  After improving nicely yesterday, rates rose quickly today by nearly the same amount.  Relative to the recent landscape, this leaves us in the same territory as Thursday the 19th, on average.  Throughout this volatile stretch, top tier 30yr fixed rates have averaged 4.125% during better moments and 4.25% on the bad days.  The latter is slightly more prevalent today, but 4.125% is still out there.

A mere eighth of a percentage point might not sound like much.  It may not even BE much if considered in terms of the monthly payment change (about $14/mo on a 200k loan).  But for borrowers looking to move down an eighth from today's quotes, it would cost more than $1000 on that same $200k loan.  Granted, single day moves of .125% are uncommon, but we've seen moves half that big on a fairly regular basis recently.