Mortgage rates fell by a modest amount today.  It was fairly inconsequential in the bigger picture, but could save some prospective borrowers a few dollars of upfront fees.  If you're in a position to decide on locking your loan this afternoon, be aware that tomorrow brings the important jobs report (nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate are released) which can have a bigger impact on rates than other economic reports. 

Despite today's modest improvement, rates have been trending higher fairly consistently since breaking out of a sideways range on July 19th.  But notably, current rates aren't that much higher than they were late last week.  In contrast, Freddie Mac's widely-cited weekly rate survey says rates are 0.06% higher.  That's actually fairly outrageous.  For instance, one of the biggest lenders out there has today's 30yr fixed costing 0.059%, or $59 for every $100,000 financed.  This equates to an implied move in interest rates of less than 0.01%.  In other words, if you were being quoted 4.75% last week, your effective rate would still be just under 4.76% this week.  Even then, lenders generally only offer rates in 0.125% increments, so the true change would instead be measured in terms of upfront costs (that's where $59 per 100k borrowed comes in).