Rates Drop on Subprime Woes

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average, at 6.68%, came in 1 basis point lower than last week, Freddie Mac said its latest survey of mortgage-lending companies, thrifts and commercial banks showed. At this time a year ago, the average was slightly lower at 6.63%.

“Market investors seeking safety from the subprime fallout bought Treasury securities, pushing bond yields down and allowing mortgage rates to drift a bit lower,” Freddie said in an announcement.

The benchmark for long-term mortgage rates, the 10-year Treasury note yield, found itself at 4.77% closing, near the same level it was a week earlier.

More than 60 percent of the “experts” Bankrate.com surveyed this week believe rates will remain relatively unchanged over the next 35 to 45 days while the rest predict a downfall.

Falling 5 BPS within the past seven days, the 15-year averaged 6.32% this week, Freddie said.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage average reportedly dipped 1 BPS from a week ago to 6.29%.

The most notable improvement was seen in the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM, as Freddie said its average sunk 10 BPS to 5.59% this week. The 1-year Treasury bill itself tumbled 13 BPS within a week to 4.82% Wednesday, Federal Reserve data showed.

The ARM share of total mortgage applications edged up to above 22% during the week ending July 27, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Wednesday.

Total mortgage application volume was unchanged from the previous week as refinance requests ticked up 2 percent and purchase money application activity nudged down by the same percentage, MBA’s Weekly Mortgage Application Survey showed. As applications for conventional loans edged down, they increased 2 percent from the prior week for government-insured loans.

The refinance share of total mortgage applications inched up from the prior week to above 39%, according to the survey.