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| Purchase money demand rose as rates stayed where they are forecasted to hold throughout the quarter.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average remained at 6.16%, according to Freddie Mac’s latest weekly survey of 125 mortgage-lending companies, thrifts and commercial banks. A year ago, the average was 0.43% higher. The 15-year was also unchanged from last week at 5.87%, Freddie reported. The 10-year Treasury, a benchmark for fixed mortgage rates, yielded 4.67% near midday — unchanged from a week earlier. Edging down 1 basis point from a week ago to a reported 5.87% was the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage. The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 5.42%, 1 BPS below last week’s level, Freddie said. The 1-year Treasury bill itself was at 4.89% on Tuesday, also 1 BPS lower than a week earlier, Federal Reserve data showed. The ARM share of total mortgage applications fell from the previous week to below 18%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Factors that helped hold mortgage rates steady this week were weaker-than-expected economic growth, with the housing market contributing to some of that weakness, and tame consumer spending and price increases in consumer expenditures during March, Freddie’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, commented in a written statement. Rates will remain relatively unchanged over the next 35 to 45 days, according to 58 of the 100 mortgage “experts” surveyed by Bankrate.com this week, as only 25 other panelists forecast a decrease and the remaining 17 predicted an increase. Freddie’s and Fannie Mae’s latest outlooks also indicate there won’t be much movement, as both have the 30-year averaging 6.2% this quarter. MBA’s most recent forecast, however, has it averaging 6.4% this period. A 4 percent upturn in purchase money application activity slightly overshadowed a 3 percent downturn in refinance requests, MBA reported. Overall mortgage application volume increased by only about 1 percent from the previous week. The refinance share of applications fell from the prior week to below 42%, MBA said. This share has been a downward trend from a recent peak of nearly 53 percent in December 2006, despite the steady mortgage rates, Freddie’s Nothaft noted. |
