If there is an upside to all the pandemic-induced uncertainty in the economy, it's the rock-bottom mortgage rate bonus for homeowners and homebuyers.

 

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed just fell to another record low — 2.87%, according to Mortgage News Daily.

 

That is about a full percentage point lower than a year ago. And that's just the average. Some borrowers are getting even lower rates.

 

"There are pools of loans being sold right now with average rates of 2.625%, meaning some people are getting rates at 2.375-2.5%," said Matthew Graham, chief operating officer at Mortgage News Daily. "While those likely involve some closing costs, that's still nuts."

 

Mortgage rates loosely follow the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, which on Thursday fell to the lowest level since March. It is not an exact marriage, however, as the two have diverged recently given all the strange market conditions brought on by the coronavirus: The Federal Reserve began buying more mortgage-backed bonds to keep the market afloat and at the same time instituted a mortgage bailout for borrowers hit financially by the crisis.

 

All the uncertainty makes lenders and investors in mortgages nervous. They worry that people will lose their jobs and not make their monthly payments, or that the economy will go on lockdown again, hurting the housing market in general.