Mortgage Loan Rates Mostly Steady Last Week, Refinancings Increase
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported a slight decrease in mortgage application volume for the week ending June 16. Mortgage loan rates remained low, encouraging more refinancing activity.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting an increase of 0.6% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending June 16. During the week, mortgage loan rates increased or stayed the same on the loan types that the MBA tracks.
On an unadjusted basis, the composite index decreased by 0.4% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 1% compared with the week ended June 9. The unadjusted purchase index decreased by 2% for the week and is now 9% higher year over year.
The MBA’s refinance index increased by 2% week over week and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing rose from 45.4% to 46.6%.
Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 7.5% of all applications, up from 7.4% in the prior week.
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Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily noted on Tuesday that mortgage loan rates remain very close to their lowest levels in eight months, with the most often quoted rate for top-tier borrowers at 4% for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage. A few of the more aggressive lenders are quoting 3.875%.
According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged at 4.13%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.06% to 4.08%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 3.37% to 3.40%.
The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage loan remained unchanged at 3.26%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan rose from 4.00% to 4.04%.
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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.
