Housing

Mortgage Loan Rates Tick Higher as Fed Announcement Looms

Paul Ausick

Published: December 9, 2015 7:40 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:18 pm

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its latest report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning. It noted a week-over-week increase of 1.2% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending December 4, following a decrease of 0.2% for the week ending November 27. Mortgage loan rates increased slightly on four types of fixed-rate loans last week and decreased slightly on 5/1 adjustable-rate loans.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index increased by 43% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased by less than 0.1% compared with the week ended November 27. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 36% for the week and is now 29% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index increased by 4% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing rose from 56.6% to 58.7%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 6.2% of all applications, up from 6.1% the prior week.

Mortgage News Daily reports that a 30-year fixed-rate conforming loan averaged 4.00% on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of 3.55% to 4.20%. The publication noted that between now and the expected announcement next week of a hike in the fed funds rate, “risk and reward for locking floating [interest rates] should die down.”

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.12% to 4.14%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 3.99% to 4.02%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.36% to 3.39%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan decreased from 3.11% to 2.98%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan rose from 3.89% to 3.91%.