If case you haven't noticed, lenders are charging a point for the great rates on all their loans, or are getting a much higher rate for a 0 point loan. The reason is the rumor that is currently floating around indicating that the Fed is planning to have mortgage drop to 4.5%. No one can whether this is really a rumor or if it is really true. So the lenders are hedging their bets.
Take today's 30 Year fixed conventional rate. If you have good credit and are putting 20% down, you can get 5.25% with 1 point or 6.25% with zero points. Lenders fear is that if people finance today at 5.75%, they will refinance out of their mortgage if the rate drops to 4.5% sometime in the next few months. If that happens, the lenders would lose money. Lenders also make money on the servicing of loans, and they would lose money because they wouldn't have "serviced' these loans long enough. So, by pricing mortgage rates the way they have, they can make money either way: either by charging a point up front, or with a higher rate which they can charge more for when they bring the finished loan to market.
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