Mortgage rates were little changed this past week, and one short-term outlook has them staying put for the next week. Another forecast has quarterly rates not changing at all next year.
Single-family loans closed during June had a 30-year note rate of 4.90 percent. The rate rose from 4.84 percent the preceding month and 4.27 percent a year previous.
Thirty-year rates on conventional transactions were 4.92 percent last month. On loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, the average was 4.94 percent.
Mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs had the lowest rates: 4.74 percent.
The rates were reported by Ellie Mae Inc. in its
Origination Insight Report June 2018.
LendingTree reported that on loans to finance a home purchase, 30-year fixed rate offers averaged 5.00 percent in June, up 8 BPS.
Offers to prospective borrowers with the highest credit scores averaged 4.86 percent.
In the seven days ended July 19, thirty-year fixed rates averaged
4.52 percent, slipping a basis point from the prior week, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Compared to the same week a year prior, 30-year rates have risen 56 BPS.
“Manufacturing output and consumer spending showed improvements, but construction activity was a disappointment,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said in the report. “This meant there was no driving force to move mortgage rates in any meaningful way, which has been the theme in the last two months.”
Three-quarters of panelists surveyed by Bankrate.com for the week July 18 to July 24 predicted rates won’t move more than 2 BPS over the next week. The remaining quarter expected a decline.
Fannie Mae’s Housing Forecast: July 2018 has 30-year fixed rates at 4.5 percent this quarter and 4.6 percent each of the following quarters through the end of next year.
In the week ended July 13, the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from Mortgage Daily and OpenClose indicated that jumbo rates were 10 BPS higher than conforming rates, a little less than 11 BPS in the previous week.
Freddie reported average 15-year fixed rates at 4.00 percent, down 2 BPS. The spread between 15- and 30-year rates widened to 52 BPS from 51 BPS.
Five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.87 percent in Freddie’s survey, creeping up a basis point from the week ended July 12.
In Fannie’s outlook, hybrid ARMs are expected to average 3.9 percent in the third and fourth quarters then rise to 4.0 percent in the first-quarter 2019.
Treasury Department data indicate that the index for hybrid ARMs, the one-year Treasury note yield, closed Thursday at 2.40 percent, up a single basis point from seven days earlier.
Bankrate.com reported that the six-month London Interbank Offered Rate was 2.52 percent as of Wednesday, inching up 1 basis point from the preceding Wednesday.
The Secured Overnight Financing Rate was reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at
1.90 percent as of Wednesday, a basis point more than Wednesday of last week.
In the most-recent Mortgage Market Index report, ARM share was 13.7 percent, thinning from 16.8 percent a week earlier.
ARM share in Ellie’s report was 6.9 percent, widening from 6.6 percent in May and 5.9 percent in June 2017. ARM share was 7.6 percent on conventional transactions, 0.6 percent on FHA closings and 0.5 percent on VA mortgages.
