The Monthly Treasury Average moved up for the second month in a row to reach the highest level in seven months.
As of December, the MTA was 0.12083 percent, according to a Mortgage Daily analysis of Federal Reserve Board data.
The last time the index was that high was in May, when it also came in at 0.12083 percent.
The index increased from 0.11417 percent in November, a month when it was also higher.
In December 2013, the MTA was 0.13083 percent — a record-low at the time.
MTA is calculated based on the daily average of the one-year Treasury note yield for each of the most-recent 12 months. During December 2014, the daily average was
0.21 percent, soaring from the previous month’s 0.13 percent.
While the MTA is used to determine rate and payment changes on some adjustable-rate mortgages, a far more widely used ARM index is the one-year Treasury yield, which surged to 0.25 percent at the end of December from just 0.13 percent at the end of the prior month, according to Treasury Department data.
The one-year yield closed Monday at 0.26 percent.
ARM share
was 9.2 percent in the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from LoanSifter/Optimal Blue and Mortgage Daily for the week ended Jan. 2, slipping from 9.8 percent seven days earlier.