Rate locks are backed by rate swaps. The cost of purchasing a rate swap ultimately comes out of your pocket in the form of additional rate on the loan (the lender can add overhead of course). The cost of rate swaps has doubled in the past 3 months and quadrupled in the past 18 months. I believe it's currently around 3% on 10 year loans, so a 60 day lock on a $500K 10Y mortgage would cost about $2500 while a 200 day lock would cost over $8000.