Mortgage Loan Rates Little Changed, Applications Up Last Week

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting an increase of 4.9% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending April 13. Mortgage loan rates remained unchanged last week on three of five loan types that the MBA tracks.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index increased by 6% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index also rose by 6% compared with the week ended April 6. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 7% for the week and is now 10% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index increased by 4% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing dipped week over week from 38.4% to 37.6%, its lowest level since September 2008.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 6.6% of all applications, up from 6.3% in the prior week.

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Mortgage loan rates continue to move sideways, fixed at around 4.5%, give or take a few basis points, on 30-year fixed-rate conforming loans. Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily pointed out yesterday that last week’s run-up to the bombing of targets in Syria generated a lot of headlines, but not much movement in bond yields vis-a-vis equities prices. Charting movements in the S&P 500, the U.S. 10-year Treasury and the German 10-year Bund, Graham notes: “… [A]ll 3 markets are in the throes of some sort of consolidation and that Syria headlines–if they’re lucky–would only account for minor course corrections inside those broader trends.”

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was unchanged at 4.66%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage also remained unchanged at 4.53%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage remained at 4.08%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan increased from 3.93% to 3.94%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan rose from 4.66% to 4.70%.

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