The Cost of Funds Index fell to within a single basis point of its lowest level on record. Also improving was the yield on the one-year Treasury note.
March’s COFI came in at 0.967 percent, according to data reported by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.
The 11th District index dropped from February, when it was 0.999 percent.
COFIÂ reached an all-time low in January:Â 0.962 percent.
In March 2012, COFIÂ was 1.163 percent.
The index is based on interest expenses at banks that are FHLBÂ members based in Arizona, California and Nevada.
In the March calculation, $34.2 billion in average total funds were used.
A far more widely used index for adjustable-rate mortgages is the yield on the one-year Treasury note, which fell to 0.14 percent as of the end of March from 0.17 percent at the end of February, according to data supplied by the Department of the Treasury. The one-year yield closed out April at 0.11 percent.
ARMs accounted for 4.9 percent of all rate locks tracked in the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from LoanSifter and Mortgage Daily for the week ended April 26.