Home-lending interest rates retreated again and now stand at their lowest level since April. Average rates on hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages plummeted.
Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages had an average interest rate of 4.52 percent in the week that concluded on July 5, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.
The average declined from one week earlier, when long-term mortgage rates were 4.55 percent. It was the lowest average since it was 4.47 percent in the week ended April 19.
The 30 year has been lower each week since the seven days ended June 14, when the average was 4.62 percent, and has fallen five of the past six weeks.
“The run-up in mortgage rates earlier this year represented not just a rise in risk-free borrowing costs, but for investors, the mortgage spread also rose back to more normal levels by about 20 basis points,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said in the report. “What that means for buyers is good news. Mortgage rates may have a little more room to decline over the very short term.”
In the same week last year, 30-year fixed rates averaged 3.96 percent.
Mortgage rates will not move more than 2 BPS over the next week, 42 percent of panelists surveyed by Bankrate.com for the week July 3 to July 10 predicted. A third expected a decline, and a quarter projected an increase.
In the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from Mortgage Daily and OpenClose for the week ended June 29, jumbo interest rates were 11 BPS more than conforming rates, less than 15 BPS a week earlier.
Freddie reported average 15-year fixed rates at 3.99 percent, retreating 5 BPS. Fifteen-ear rates were 53 BPS lower than 30-year rates, more than 51 BPS in the last report.
A 13-basis-point plunge left five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid ARMs averaging 3.74 percent in Freddie’s survey.
The yield on the one-year Treasury note closed Thursday at 2.32 percent, slipping from 2.33 percent last Thursday, according to Treasury Department data.
The six-month London Interbank Offered Rate. was reported by Bankrate.com at 2.51 percent as of Wednesday, inching up from 2.50 percent seven days earlier.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the Secured Overnight Financing Rate was 2.00 percent as of Wednesday, climbing from 1.93 percent the same day last week.
But the 11th District Cost of Funds Index, which might be retired in 2020, was reported by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco at 0.885 percent for May, down from 0.895 percent the previous month.
ARMs made up 18.2 percent of all rate locks in the latest Mortgage Market Index report, not as wide as the 20.6 percent ARM share of last week’s report.
