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If you haven't been paying attention over the past 11 days then you've missed one of the most volatile periods in mortgage rate history. The low point for the year was November 4th. One day after the Federal Reserve announced the spectacular Quantitative Easing 2 program (learn more about that by watching this easy to understand video).

The experts said to expect lower rates. Of course the exact opposite has happened. Over the past 11 days the cost for an interest rate (either charged or credited by the lender) increased over 200bps (2%). In generic terms that means roughly a .25% - .375% higher interest rates for everyone.

We've said all a long that interest rates would need to rise but we just didn't think it would be over a 10 day period. In the short term we suggest to take what you can get and lock in your loan. Close and never look back. Predicting right now for more than 5-7 days is a high risk. If you're in the home purchasing market and could be more than 30 days out we suggest qualifying you payments on rates .25% - .375% higher then current market. That way if rates continue to rise you know you can qualify and the payment is in your budget.

 We'd like to thank Ben Bernanke for a wild roller coaster ride. But enough already we would like to get off. More to come soon once we can read the "Federal Reserve Tea Leaves" clearly.