Does anyone remember when the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was up around 8 percent? I do.

Perhaps that’s why it continues to stun me that a tiny shift in our now ultra low rates can have a huge effect on consumer activity, namely refinancing. No question, it is a statement on just how tight and how sensitive our current mortgage market is today.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey, “The Refinance Index decreased 9.2 percent from the previous week. The Refinance Index has decreased for 3 consecutive weeks, reaching its lowest level since May 6, 2011.”

The mortgage bankers cite a jump (and by jump, I mean more like a hop) in rates on the 30 year from 4.46 percent to 4.69 percent. This is the highest rate since mid-May, they note, which I will note was just two months ago.

Yes, that’s a pretty large jump, but we are still below 5! The trouble is that there is a very small pool of eligible refinancers right now, because 1) so many have already refinanced at these incredibly low rates, 2) many borrowers are still underwater on their homes, which makes them largely ineligible for super low rates and 3) many borrowers don’t have enough equity or the proper credit score to get into a refi that’s worth the cost.

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Foreclosure activity decreased in April for the seventh straight month, bringing total foreclosure activity to a 40-month low, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. This is not to say that default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions aren’t running well above the norms, with one in every 593 US households receiving a foreclosure filing in April. The numbers are actually quite deceptive.

“This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures, rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure,” notes RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio in a statement.

There are currently 3.7 million loans that are 90 days or more delinquent, according to RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga. Nationwide, completed foreclosures (REOs) took an average of 400 days from initial default notice to REO in the first quarter of this year. That’s up from 340 days a year ago and more than double the 151 days in 2007. At the current rate, it would take three to four years to move those loans through the foreclosure process. In some states, the picture is far worse.

In New York and New Jersey, it takes more than 900 days to get through the foreclosure process from start to finish, in Florida 619 days, and in California 330 days, according to RealtyTrac.

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