Mortgage Loan Rates Fall Slightly, Applications Continue Sliding
Mortgage loan rates closed last week about where they started it. Applications for new mortgage loans dipped slightly last week and refinance levels remain at a near-10-year low.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decrease of 0.4% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending May 4. Mortgage loan rates dipped slightly last week on all five loan types that the MBA tracks.
On an unadjusted basis, the composite index was unchanged week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index dropped 0.2% compared with the week ended April 27. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 0.4% for the week and is now 3% higher year over year.
The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 1% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing dipped week over week from 36.5% to 36.3%, its lowest level since September 2008.
Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 6.5% of all applications, down from 6.7% in the prior week.
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Mortgage loan rates continue moving sideways this week, according to Mortgage News Daily. Yields on 10-year Treasuries dipped as low as 2.91% late last week but had moved back to around 2.97% on Tuesday. The most prevalent mortgage loan rate on a 30-year fixed-rate conforming loan remains in a range of 4.62% to 4.75% on Tuesday.
According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped from 4.80% to 4.78%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped from 4.69% to 4.65%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage ticked down from 4.21% to 4.20%.
The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan decreased from 4.03% to 3.98%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan also ticked down from 4.81% to 4.80%.
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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.
