Mortgage Loan Rates Fall to 8-Month Low

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By Paul Ausick Updated Published
Mortgage Loan Rates Fall to 8-Month Low

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning. It noted a week-over-week decrease of 2.6% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending January 29. For the second consecutive week, mortgage loan rates for all types of loans have decreased.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index decreased by 11% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 7% compared with the week ended January 22. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 11% for the week and is now 17% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index increased by 0.3% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing ticked higher, from 59.0% to 59.2%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 5.9% of all applications, down from 6.9% in the previous week.
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Mortgage News Daily reported on Tuesday that mortgage rates fell to their lowest level since April of last year:

The average lender is now easily down to conventional 30yr fixed rates of 3.75%. The stronger lenders have gradually been moving down to 3.625%. … The long term trend toward lower rates remains intact, and it will take several days of substantially higher rates to call that into question.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased from 4.02% to 3.97%, its lowest level since October 2015. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased from 3.89% to 3.84%, the lowest rate since April 2015. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell from 3.28% to 3.22%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan decreased from 3.09% to 3.00%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan fell from 3.83% to 3.80%.

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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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