Though it had nearly fallen to a new low a month earlier, the Cost of Funds Index crept higher. A much more popular adjustable-rate index, however, tumbled.
The index value for COFIÂ came in at 0.956 percent in August, up ever so slightly from the prior month’s index value of 0.954 percent.
However, the index — which is utilized to determine rate and payment adjustments for some adjustable-rate mortgages — managed to improve from August 2012, when it was 1.069 percent.
COFIÂ was reported Monday by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco based on the interest expense of 11th District FHLB members based in Arizona, California and Nevada.
In the most recent report, $35.3 billion in average total funds were used in the calculation of the index.
A more widely used ARMÂ index, the yield on the one-year Treasury note, moved from 0.11 percent at the end of July to 0.13 percent at the end of August.
But the one-year yield has since tumbled, closing out September at 0.10 percent.
ARMs accounted for 10.6 percent of all activity in the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from LoanSifter and Mortgage Daily for the week ended Sept. 27, declining from 11.0 percent in the previous report.