It was the fourth month in a row that the 11th District Cost of Funds Index moved lower.
COFI was 1.654 percent in October, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco reported Tuesday. The index fell from 1.663 percent in September and has been lower each month since June, when it was 1.797 percent.
But COFI has surged from October 2009, when it stood at just 1.259 percent.
Average total funds used in October’s calculation were $35.3 billion. The funds were held by FHLB members based in Arizona, California and Nevada.
A more widely used index for adjustable-rate mortgages, the yield on the one-year Treasury, fell to 0.22 percent at the end of October from 0.27 percent the previous month, based on data from the Department of the Treasury. However, the one-year climbed back up to 0.27 percent at the end of November.
The six-month LIBOR, which is the index on many subprime ARMs, was 0.45 percent at the close of October, lower than 0.46 the prior month. LIBORÂ closed out November at 0.44 percent.
ARMs accounted for 5.3 percent of activity in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ended Nov. 19.
