The Monthly Treasury Average has become like the woman in the television commercial who has fallen and can’t get up. After breaking below 0.30 percent in March, the index reached a new low and appears to be headed even lower.
The MTA — which reflects a 12-month average of the one-year Treasury yield — fell to 0.27833 percent during April based on Federal Reserve Data. It was the lowest index on record based on an analysis of data back to 1953.
MTA was 0.29500 percent a month earlier and 0.41250 percent a year earlier.
Helping to pull down the index was the underlying one-year yield, which had a daily average of 0.25 percent last month.
The one-year Treasury, itself, yielded 0.17 percent at today’s close, 0.22 percent at the end of April and 0.30 percent at the end of March. Both the MTA and the one-year Treasury yield are used as indices for adjustable-rate mortgages.
The share of borrowers out shopping for a mortgage who elected to go with an ARM has risen to 10.45 percent as of Friday from 9.53 percent as of the end of March, according to the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from Mortech Inc. and MortgageDaily.com.
