Refi Booms, Loan Limits, and Mortgage Rate Misdirection

'Tis the season for things to be something other than what they appear to be, apparently. Lenders are talking about new loan limits, but they haven't officially changed. News stories are saying rates went lower this week, but they're higher. And there's even talk of a big refi boom, but as you may have guessed, that's also not exactly right. Rates . Rates continued to move slightly higher (yes, higher), while remaining close enough to long-term lows.  This chart of 10yr Treasury yields (a proxy for longer-term rates like mortgages) does a good job of capturing all of the positive momentum seen in recent months as well as the mild correction that began after last week's Fed rate cut. Things look even milder if we focus on mortgage rates .  In fact, one measure of mortgage r