Mortgage rates moved down over the past week, and all indications are that they will remain at the lower level in the next report.
In Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ended Nov. 13, thirty-year fixed rates averaged 4.01 percent.
There was little change from a week earlier, when the average was 4.02 percent. But the 30 year improved by 34 basis points compared to a year earlier.
Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft explained that last week’s employment report had a mixed impact on this week’s rates.
“Fixed mortgage rates were slightly down on mixed results from October’s employment report,” Nothaft said in the report. “While the unemployment rate declined to 5.8 percent, nonfarm employment rose by 214,000 jobs, which was below consensus expectations.”
It appears that fixed mortgage rates won’t be much different in Freddie’s next survey based on Treasury market activity. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note — a benchmark for fixed mortgage rates — averaged 2.36 percent during Freddie’s survey period, while it closed Thursday at 2.35 percent, according to data from the Department of the Treasury.
Seventy percent of panelists surveyed by Bankrate.com for the week Nov. 13 to Nov. 19 agreed with Mortgage Daily’s projection and predicted that rates won’t move more than 2 BPS over the next week. The remaining panelists were evenly split about whether rates would rise or fall.
Jumbo interest rates were 10 BPS more than rates on conforming loans, according to the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from LoanSifter/Optimal Blue and Mortgage Daily for the week ended Nov. 7. The jumbo-conforming spread widened from 4 BPS in the prior report.
Average 15-year fixed rates slipped a single basis point from the week ended Nov. 6 to 3.20 percent in Freddie’s survey. Fifteen-year rates were 81 BPS less than 30-year rates, the same as in the previous report.
Freddie reported that five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.02 percent, up 5 BPS from the previous survey.
One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 2.43 percent, Freddie said, 2 BPS better than a week earlier. In the week ended Nov. 14, 2013, one-year ARMs averaged 2.61 percent.
The one-year ARM adjusts based on the one-year Treasury yield –which soared to 0.15 percent Thursday from 0.12 percent seven days earlier, according to the Treasury Department.
The six-month London Interbank Offered Rate — or LIBOR — was 0.33 percent Wednesday, the same as one week earlier.
Of all pricing inquiries pulled in the latest Mortgage Market Index report, 11.3 percent were for an ARM. In the previous report, ARM share was 10.8 percent.
