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| The yield on the 30-year fixed rate has fallen more than one-third percent over the past year.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average, at 6.17%, was down 5 basis points from a week ago, Freddie Mac’s latest survey of 125 mortgage lenders indicated. The 30-year is 36 BPS below the level a year earlier “Mortgage rates slipped following the latest reports of moderation in inflation rates from the core producer price and consumer price indexes,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie chief economist, in a written statement. “Excluding food and energy, the core inflation rate for consumer prices rose 2.5 percent year-over-year, the smallest annual growth since May 2006. This helped calm markets and brought mortgage rates down.” Out of 100 mortgage industry individuals, brokers and bankers surveyed by Bankrate.com this week, 44 predicted rates will head upward over the next month and a half, about one-third forecast rates will remain relatively unchanged and only 22 foresaw a downturn. Fannie Mae’s April forecast has the 30-year averaging 6.21% until slightly rising to 6.22% in the fourth quarter. Freddie’s outlook is similar but has it ending the year at 6.3%. The 15-year averaged 5.89%, off 1 BPS from last week, Freddie said. The benchmark for long-term rates, the 10-year Treasury note, yielded 4.67% around midday, after closing at 4.73% a week earlier. The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage average reportedly slipped 1 BPS during the week to 5.92%. At 5.45%, the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM was down 2 BPS from the average reported last week. The 1-year T-bill yield, at 4.91% Wednesday, fell 6 BPS from a week earlier, Federal Reserve data showed. The share of applications that were for ARMS dipped to 18%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The volume of 1003s was off by about 3 percent from the previous week, MBA reported. The decline reflected a 4% downturn in purchase-money loan requests and a slight decrease in applications from borrowers seeking a refinance. “Since the survey covered the week after the Easter weekend, it is likely that home sales were a little lower, and thus, possibly impacted purchase applications last week.” said Vincent Varma, an MBA director, in an announcement. The refinance share of applications nudged up from a week prior to 44%, MBA announced. |
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