Did the Rates go down?  NO  I know, you do not understand why the Fed lowered the Prime and mortgage rates are not moving down with it. Why not? Again, the 30 year fixed mortgage rates are dictated by many factors. A key factor being the 10-year bond yield. Click on www.finance.yahoo.com and see that the bond yields have moved up.  Will they go down tomorrow? Who know?  Why did the market go down at the end of the day instead of up? Perhaps, it is because the companies that insure the (mortgage) bonds have been downgraded.  This means that the companies that insure the bonds which are backed by (residential) mortgages might be taking hits due to bad investments. There, they are bad investments themselves. Shocking.  Remember the floods?  This made homeowner’s insurance premiums on houses in the Bronx go up. Follow the logic.  Dale Siegel