Housing

Mortgage Loan Rates, New Applications Moved Only Slightly Last Week

Paul Ausick

Published: July 31, 2019 9:50 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 7:20 am

When the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, it noted a decrease of 1.4% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending July 26. Mortgage interest rate changes were mixed on the five types of loans the MBA tracks.

On an unadjusted basis, the MBA’s composite index decreased by 1% in the past week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 3% compared with the week ended July 19. The unadjusted purchase index also slipped by 3% for the week and was 6% higher year over year.

Mortgage loan rates for a top-tier 30-year fixed-rate loan inched up by about 0.3 percentage points to 3.91% last week, according to Mortgage News Daily. As of Tuesday night, top-tier borrowers were paying 3.88% for that loan. The week-over-week yield on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note dipped from 2.08% to 2.06% as of last night’s close. A year ago, the 10-year note yielded 2.96%.

Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting, said:

Mortgage applications were lower last week, driven by a 3 percent decrease in purchase applications. While purchase activity was still up 6 percent from a year ago, the index has now decreased for three straight weeks and reached its lowest point since March. Despite healthy demand, inadequate supply levels continue to hold back some would-be buyers.

The MBA’s refinance index increased by a scant 0.1% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing rose from 49.8% to 50.5%.

Adjustable-rate mortgage loans accounted for 4.7% of all applications, unchanged compared with the prior week.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged at 4.08%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage also was unchanged at 4.04%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.45% to 3.48%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage loan slipped from 3.57% to 3.52%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan ticked down from 4.98% to 3.97%, the lowest level since September 2017.

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