Mortgage Loan Rates Rose Slightly in Final Week of 2015

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning. It noted a week-over-week decrease of 27% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending January 1. Results for the week have been adjusted to account for the New Year’s Day holiday. Results for the prior week also included an adjustment for the Christmas holiday. Mortgage loan rates increased on all types of non-FHA loans during the week.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index decreased by 50% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 15%, compared with the week ended December 25. The unadjusted purchase index decreased by 40% for the week and is now 22% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 37% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing dropped from 56.1% to 55.4%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 4.7% of all applications.
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Mortgage News Daily cites a loan officer who thinks that the beginning of 2016 has not been too bad:

All things considered we’re off to a pretty good start to 2016. We sit here post Fed. rate hike with rates we’ve seen many times over the past year. Despite that relatively good news I feel like we have a very tenuous hold on this range. I don’t have much of a technical argument it’s more just a gut feeling. With big news on the horizon this week (Jobs report Friday) I would recommend a defensive stance. Current rates are not nearly as bad as they could be if Friday’s jobs report is strong.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 4.19% to 4.20%, its highest level since July 2015. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 4.07% to 4.09%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.42% to 3.47%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan increased from 3.13% to 3.19%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan fell from 3.97% to 3.95%.