Mortgage rates moved lower again today as investors remained cautious amid political uncertainty at home and abroad.  Stocks began the day higher but lost ground throughout the day--indirectly helping rates.  That's not to suggest mortgage rates routinely take cues from stocks.  Rather, slumping stocks and falling rates speak to the same underlying trends.  Caution, fear, and the like, tend to increase demand for less risky assets like bonds.  As demand for bonds increases (sometimes, at the expense of stocks--like today), rates fall.

In and of itself, today's improvement was mild to moderate.  But taken together with yesterday, the gains were more meaningful as they brought a majority of lenders back to quoting 30yr fixed rates of 4.125% on top tier scenarios.  The transition from 4.25% is still very much "in progress," however.  More than a few lenders continue quoting 4.25%, but with slightly lower upfront costs vs yesterday.

In relative terms, today's rates are as low as they've been in 3 weeks.  We've only been able to say that one other time  since the election (early to mid January), and that turned out to be a good time to consider locking vs floating.  Past precedent doesn't guarantee a similar outcome, but the longer the winning streak continues, the more it makes sense to look for tactical opportunities to take advantage of the gains.