In the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey from the week before, short-term mortgage rates, which had been going up very quickly for the past few weeks, suddenly went down a little. Long-term rates, on the other hand, almost didn't change.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) went from 6.45 percent to 6.46 percent with the same 0.5 point, an increase of one basis point. At the same time in 2006, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.47 percent.
The average rate for a fixed-rate 15-year loan with 0.5 point was 6.15 percent. Changed very little from 6.12 percent in the week ending August 30 with 0.5 point. Last year at this time, the fixed rate for a 15-year loan was 6.16 percent.
The average contract interest rate for a 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) was 6.32 percent with 0.6 point. This was not much different from the week before, when the rate was 6.35 percent with 0.6 point. Compared to the same time in 2006, the current rate is 19 basis points higher.
The 1-year treasury-indexed adjustable rate mortgage has shown the biggest change. Last week, the adjustable rate mortgage went up 24 basis points, to 5.84 percent with 0.8 point. This week, it went back down 10 basis points, to an average of 5.74 percent with 0.6 point.
Frank Nothaft, vice-president and chief economist of Freddie Mac, said, "Over the past week, long-term mortgage rates were mostly the same because the latest economic news showed smaller increases than had been expected." He gave the example of the core personal consumption expenditure price index, which only went up by 1.3% on an annualised basis in the second quarter, but went up by 1.9% in the 12 months ending in July, according to data on consumer spending.
The 30-year fixed rate mortgage dropped from 6.42 percent with 1.09 points to 6.25 percent with 1 point, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 7.
The average contract interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage also went down a lot, from 6.10 percent with 1.16 points to 5.9 percent with 1.03 points. The short-term 1-year ARM went down from 6.52 percent to 6.34 percent, and the points stayed the same at 0.93 percent.
Seasonally adjusted, the number of mortgage applications was up 5.5% from the week before, but it was down 16.7% from the week before that and only up 0.1% from the same time last year.
Refinancing is up by 0.7% as a share of all mortgage activity. It is now 42.1 percent from 41.4 percent during the last week. But the market share of adjustable-rate mortgages keeps going down, from 13.2% last week to 12.6% this week.
