Mortgage rates would have been volatile this week. The presence of Labor Day just piles on. If you have a chance to lock something favorable and within your budget, consider doing it.

Mortgage rates are (again) at their lowest levels in history.

No doubt you’ve heard that mortgage rates are low. They’re lower than they’ve ever been in history. The news is everywhere. But the low rate environment looks like it’s ending.

Conforming mortgage rates may be posting all-time lows this week, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be eligible for them. You may have already called your loan officer and found this out the hard way. It’s because of a federally-mandated mortgage-pricing scheme known as “loan-level pricing adjustments”.

Mortgage rates move in response to hundreds of factors. Among the biggest influences on mortgage rates? Inflation.

Mortgage rates may be dropping, but mortgage costs are not. According to Freddie Mac, the average required discount points on a conforming mortgage rate are higher by 0.1 percent since early-May.

Although the newspapers reported mortgage rates down last week, they weren’t. Conforming mortgage rates were higher by at least 1/8 percent, or roughly $11 per $100,000 borrowed per month. In some cases, rates were up by even more.