Housing

Mortgage Loan Rates Continue Falling on Market Volatility

Paul Ausick

Published: February 10, 2016 7:35 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:23 pm

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning. It noted a week-over-week increase of 9.3% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending February 5. For the third consecutive week, mortgage loan rates for all types of loans have decreased.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index increased by 12% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased by 0.2%, compared with the week ended January 29. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 7% for the week and is now 25% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index increased by 16% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing rose from 59.2% to 61.2%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 64% of all applications, up from 5.9% in the previous week.

Mortgage News Daily offered this explanation for the continued downward trend in mortgage interest rates:

[W]hen it comes to adjusting rate sheets to match trading levels in financial markets (which is the core of mortgage rate pricing), lenders have a hard time keeping up with major volatility.

As a result, lending rates have reached multi-month lows, and in one case, multiyear lows.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased from 3.97% to 3.91%, its lowest level since April 2015. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased from 3.84% to 3.76%, the lowest rate since April 2013. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell from 3.22% to 3.18%, again the lowest rate since April 2015.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan decreased from 3.00% to 2.96%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan fell from 3.80% to 3.72%.