Mortgage rates moved higher this past week and month. It has been more than six years since rates on hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages have been as high as they were this week.
The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the
Federal Housing Finance Agency, reported that conforming 30-year fixed rates on purchase-money transactions averaged 4.17 percent in November.
Average long-term rates, which are based on a small survey of primary mortgage lenders by FHFA, escalated from the previous month by 6 basis points.
Freddie reported in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ended Dec. 28 that 30-year fixed rates averaged 3.99 percent — the highest level since the average was 4.03 percent in the week ended July 13. Long-term rates ascended 5 BPS from a week earlier but were 33 BPS lower than a year earlier.
Joe Farr, director of sales and marketing at MBSQuoteline, said in a written statement to Mortgage Daily that mortgage rates have improved a few BPS since Freddie finished surveying lender this week.
Mortgage Daily’s analysis of Treasury market activity indicates rates won’t be much different in Freddie’s next report.
In its MBA Mortgage Finance Forecast, the Mortgage Bankers Association predicted that 30-year fixed rates will average 4.0 percent this quarter, 4.2 percent in the first-three months of next year and 4.4 percent in the second-quarter 2018.
Jumbo rates were 25 BPS higher than conforming rates in the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from Mortgage Daily and OpenClose for the week ended Dec. 22. The spread widened from 20 BPS the preceding week.
Fifteen-year fixed rates averaged
3.44 percent in Freddie’s survey — the highest average since they were 3.44 percent in the week ended March 23. Fifteen-year rates were 6 BPS worse than in the week ended Dec. 21. The difference between 15- and 30-year rates thinned to 55 BPS from 56 BPS in the last report.
Freddie reported that five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.47 percent — the highest average since it was 3.48 percent in the week ended May 19, 2011. Hybrid ARMs saw an 8-basis-point increase from the previous week.
Hybrid ARMs
adjust based on the one-year Treasury note yield, which closed Thursday at 1.76 percent, 3 BPS higher than last Thursday, according to Treasury Department data.
A more obscure ARM index, the six-month London Interbank Offered Rate, was 1.83 percent as of Wednesday, Bankrate.com reported. LIBOR was 1.79 percent seven days earlier.
The most-recent Mortgage Market Index report had ARM share at 11.5 percent, widening from 10.0 percent a week prior.
