When you see headlines, tweets, etc. in the coming hours regarding mortgage rates moving up to 7.37% today, that will be because I'm about to update our rate index to 7.37%. Yes, Freddie Mac released their number today as well, and it's 7.03%, but may as well be gif of Steven Tyler belting out "dream on!" Freddie's weekly survey is a Wednesday through Wednesday 5-day average of rates that's reported on Thursday. It also doesn't account for the prevalence of upfront points/buydowns (which are increasingly prevalent in this market). Our rate index accounts for points and is immune from some of the pitfalls that plague other rate metrics. (If you're typing an angry reply about rates being lower than I say, read this paragraph twice): This DOES NOT mean you couldn't see a rate quote in the high 6% range today. Many lenders will find ways to quote something under 7% today, but in those cases, it will involve more upfront cost than the apples-to-apples vanilla rate quote for a top-tier 30yr fixed scenario over the years. What is that scenario? It's basically ideal: 25% down, 780+ FICO, owner occupied, purchase, single-family residence. Anything else would be higher. You can read as much as we're willing to share about our methodology here: mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortga… You can see a chart of how our daily index compares to Freddie and MBA over the years here: mortgagenewsdaily.com/mortga… (note: depending on when you click this, today's entry may not be reflected yet as I'm writing this tweet before updating the index). No one does the work we do to nail this math every single day and no one has done anything remotely comparable for remotely as long. Those who know me know I rarely toot my own horn, and that's not even the goal here as I would be sharing this info whether I was the guy in charge or just a mortgage pro who knows what's up (incidentally, if you're one of those mortgage pros, jump in the comments and hit me up if you managed to read this far). I'm sharing this because we're about to see the mortgage rate conversation explode even more than it has in recent days, and before everyone starts arguing about what rates really are or quoting my work without attribution, I figured I'd give myself a quick shout out to get ahead of it and to make sure everyone knows to point an laugh if anyone tries to tell you "rates are almost up to 7%" because the last day that was true was September 9th.