Fixed mortgage rates remained stationary this past week but could move higher by the time the next report arrives.
In Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ended Sept. 4, average fixed rates on 30-year mortgages were 4.10 percent.
Thirty-year rates have been the same for three consecutive weeks — which just happens to be the lowest average for this year.
But there was a variance compared to one year earlier, with average 30-year rates falling 47 basis points on a year-over-year basis.
An analysis of Treasury market activity suggests that mortgage rates could be around 3 BPS worse in Freddie’s next report.
Based on data delivered by the Department of the Treasury, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note averaged 2.42 percent during Freddie’s survey period. The 10-year yield closed at 2.45 percent Thursday.
Forty-six percent of panelists surveyed by Bankrate.com for the week Sept. 4 to Sept. 10 agreed with Mortgage Daily’s forecast that rates will rise, while another 46 percent saw no more than a 2-basis-point change ahead. Just 8 percent projected a decline.
Interest rates on jumbo mortgages in the U.S. Mortgage Market Index report from LoanSifter/Optimal Blue and Mortgage Daily for the week ended Aug. 29 were 5 BPS lower than on conforming loans. The jumbo-conforming spread swung from a positive 2 BPS in the last report.
Freddie reported that 15-year fixed rates averaged 3.24 percent, off a basis point from the week ended Aug. 28. Fifteen year rates were 86 BPS better than 30-year rates. The spread widened from 85 BPS in the previous report.
No change from Freddie’s prior survey left five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid, adjustable-rate mortgages averaging 2.97 percent.
But Freddie reported that the one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 2.40 percent in the latest report, 1 basis point more than seven days earlier and 31 BPS less than in the week ended Sept. 5, 2013.
One-year ARMs move with the yield on the one-year Treasury note, which slipped to 0.10 percent Thursday from 0.11 percent a week prior.
The six-month London Interbank Offered Rate — or LIBOR — was 0.33 percent Wednesday, according to Bankrate.com, the same as the previous week.
In the most recent Mortgage Market Index report, ARM share was 11.5 percent, up from 11.0 percent in the last report.
