|
|
| Refinance application volume ascended for the third consecutive week, while the 30-year rose the first time this year.
At 5.62%, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased 5 basis points within the past week, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey. This average is also higher than the 5.58% reported at this time last year. The 15-year, at 5.14%, edged up 4 BPS since last week, Freddie said. The average 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage reportedly rose for the first time in five weeks by 6 BPS from last week to 5.05%, government-chartered Freddie said. Reversing its course from last week, Freddie said the average 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM climbed 4 BPS to 4.15%. “Mixed economic indicators can push the market up or down, depending on the timing of the release, and that’s what we saw happen this week,” commented Freddie chief economist Frank Nothaft in an announcement. “The market seemed to focus on the positive, causing mortgage rates to inch up.” Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan delivered his semiannual testimony this week to Congress. According to MarketWatch, “Greenspan’s relative optimism this week gave investors the green light to pocket some of the gains achieved by bullish bets on longer maturities.” “Longer-maturity Treasurys lost ground, pushing benchmark yields to more than two-week highs on Thursday, as the bond market reassessed its outlook for the U.S. economy and Federal Reserve interest-rate policy in light of in light of” Greenspan’s testimony, MarketWatch reported. Early Friday, the 10-year Treasury note was off 0.63 to 97.88 and yielded 4.26%. A week ago, it closed at a price of 99.28 with a 4.08% yield. None of the 100 industry brokers, bankers and individuals Bankrate.com surveyed this week believe rates will decrease over the next 30 to 45 days, 60% believe rates will head upward and the other 40% predict they’ll stay about the same (plus or minus 2 BPS). Application volume was unchanged for the week ending Feb. 11 as reflected in the Market Composite Index of 732.3, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported. The stack of applications was higher a year ago with the index at 837.1. The 5% drop in purchase application activity reportedly offset the 4% increase in refinance requests. The share of refinance applications edged up from the previous week to half, MBA said, while the ARM share dropped to 31%. |
|
|
Coco Salazar is an assistant editor and staff writer for MortgageDaily.com.email: s3celeste@aol.com |
Â
