Northeast Worst for Borrowers

Nationally, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.73%, soaring 10 basis points from last week to almost the level of 6.74% a year earlier, Freddie Mac said its latest survey of mortgage lending companies, commercial banks and thrifts showed.

“A favorable employment report for June and robust consumer credit growth for May pushed long-term mortgage rates higher in the past week, nearly eliminating the declines made in rates over the previous three weeks,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie chief economist, in Freddie’s announcement.

On a regional level, the average 30-year was highest in the Northeast at 6.78%, Freddie said.

Freddie expects 30-year rates to linger around their current levels throughout the rest of the year.

Accordingly, 63 of the 100 mortgage “experts” Bankrate.com surveyed this week believed that mortgage rates will stay relatively unchanged over the next month and a half or so. A little over one-quarter expected rates to fall and a fraction forecast a rise.

The 15-year jumped 9 BPS from a week ago to 6.39%, according to Freddie’s survey.

The 10-year Treasury note yield was at 5.12% in early afternoon trading, falling 13 BPS for the day and off 2 BPS from a week earlier.

Climbing 6 BPS to 6.35% this week was the average for 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages, Freddie reported.

There was no change in the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM average, as it stayed at 5.71%. The yield for the 1-year Treasury bill itself was at 4.97% on Tuesday, 1 BPS lower than a week earlier, Federal Reserve data showed.

Requests for adjustable-rate mortgages edged down from the prior week to account for one-fifth of total application activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Application Survey for the week ending July 6.

Overall application activity edged up 1 percent from the previous week after an adjustment to account for the Independence Day holiday, MBA said. The slight improvement was due to a 4 percent increase in purchase money demand overshadowing a 3 percent decrease in refinance requests.

The refinance share of applications slipped 1% from the previous week to 36%, MBA added.

When it comes to closing costs on mortgages, borrowers in New York continue to pay the most, Bankrate Inc. announced today. The Empire State has led the nation for three consecutive years in Bankrate’s Closing Cost Survey, which is based online lenders’ responses to requests for origination, title and closing costs fees for a borrower with good credit seeking a 30-year fixed-rate $200,000 loan for a single-family property.

New York’s closing costs of $3,830 were followed by Texas’ $3,413 and Florida’s $3,175. On the other end of the scale, a resident in Indiana would pay $2,339 for the same loan — or $1,491 less than the leading state, Bankrate reported.