Rates Improve

Down three basis points from last week, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage came in at 6.34%, Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed. Last year at this time, the average was 5.95%.

The average 15-year reportedly edged down 2 BPS to 5.98%.

The 10-year Treasury note traded midday with a 4.64% yield, down from 4.73% a week earlier and down nine BPS for the day.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage sank 10 BPS from a week ago to 5.93%, Freddie said.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs reportedly averaged 5.37% this week, falling 8 BPS from a week earlier. The 1-year T-bill itself was 4.75% as of Tuesday, 2 BPS lower than a week ago, according to the Federal Reserve.

“Financial markets, hedging against the potential build up in inflation, pushed mortgage rates higher last week,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie vice president and chief economist, in an announcement. “However, market indicators this week seemed to point to less of a threat of inflation, and that allowed rates to drift a little lower.”

Two-thirds of the 100 mortgage “experts” surveyed by Bankrate.com this week believe mortgage rates will rise over the next 35 to 45 days, while the rest are evenly split over whether they think rates will remain relatively unchanged, or fall.

The prior week’s rising rates kept mortgage applications from rising — but they didn’t fall either, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association latest weekly application survey. Purchases edged up while refinance applications and the refinance share edged down.

ARM activity crept up to 29%, MBA reported.