Though the number of refinancing applications will not be available until Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association, newspaper and television accounts from Bangor, Maine, to Los Angeles described a boom in activity.
On Thursday, when stocks rebounded after agreement on an economic-stimulus package was announced in Washington, the 30-year fixed rate climbed back to 5.75 percent.
"Still, it has been insane," said Center City mortgage broker Fred Glick, "because a lot of people didn't understand that the Fed didn't cut mortgage rates and thought they had dropped three-quarters of a point."
The mortgage market is as volatile as the stock market, however, so the rate could fall again, he said.
By the time it ticked back up Thursday, savvy mortgage shoppers like Michael and Michelle Beachkofsky of Lansdale already had closed a deal.
When they began looking for a 30-year fixed mortgage in the summer, the best rate the Beachkofskys could get with zero points was 6.625 percent.
Not bad, "but I figured that it would probably drop in the next one to three years and I just needed to keep my eye on it," said Michael Beachkofsky, 37, who is vice president of a manufacturing company.
He jumped on his refinancing shortly after the Fed made its move.
"It was done in 24 hours," Beachkovsky said. His new rate: 5.375 percent with zero points, which will trim the couple's mortgage payments by $265 a month.
Broker Jerome Scarpello of Leo Mortgage in Ambler got the original lender to reduce the Beachkovskys' loan payoff by the amount of the existing escrow account so their new loan would not be increased by that amount.
For the last week or so, Scarpello said, his phone has been ringing off the hook and the chairs in his small office have had no time to cool between applications.
