When to lock that mortgage rate: the perfect strategy

Nobody knows where interest rates are headed. Nobody. No one knows about tomorrow or next week and certainly not for the next 30 days. If someone does tell you that they know where rates are headed you need simply do nothing more than politely nod your head as they gibber. But there is a fail-safe strategy that works every time.

Remember that mortgage rate quotes are absolutely no good until you, the borrower, instruct your loan officer or lender that you want to "lock in" or otherwise guarantee your interest rate for as long as it takes to close your deal. Rates can go up or they can go down over the course of a week. Heck, they can even change throughout the course of a day. Especially so with all the stock and bond market volatility we've witnessed over the past few months. So, do you lock or not lock? That's the question.