Mortgage Loan Rates Creep Higher

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By Paul Ausick Updated Published

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decrease of 1.8% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index. That followed a drop of 7% for the previous week. Mortgage loan rates increased across the board on all loan types.

Mortgage loan applications and mortgage interest rates continue to bounce around as they have for several weeks now. The changes continue to be relatively small, but the clear trend after seven straight weeks of purchase applications coming in at or below year-ago levels is that mortgage applications have cooled off and refinancings are not picking up any slack.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 1% from last week’s report. On an unadjusted basis, the composite index decreased by 3% week-over-week. The unadjusted purchase index decreased by 3% for the week, and is 6% lower year-over-year. This marks the seventh week in a row that the year-over-year unadjusted purchase index is lower than or equal to its level of a year ago.

The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 2%, after dropping 8% in the previous week. The share of refinancings was unchanged, totaling 66% of all applications. Adjustable rate mortgage loans account for 7% of all applications, unchanged from the prior week.

The average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 4.32% to 4.44%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.37% to 4.48%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.44% to 3.52%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan rose from 3.08% to 3.11%.

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Photo of Paul Ausick
About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.

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