Housing

Mortgage Loan Rates Little Changed Last Week; New Apps Up, Refinancing Down

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decrease of 0.1% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending April 28. During the week, rates increased a few ticks on all five types of mortgage loans the MBA tracks.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index increased by 1% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index increased by 4% compared with the week ended April 21. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 5% for the week and is now 5% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 5% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing declined from 44% to 41.6%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 8.4% of all applications, down 0.3 percentage points compared to the prior week.

Little has changed in the mortgage market over the past week. Mortgage News Daily reports that Tuesday’s most common rate range on 30-year conventional loans was between 4.000% and 4.125%, exactly where it was a week ago.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is not expected to raise interest rates at its meeting that concludes today. The important thing from a mortgage loan point of view is whether the FOMC sticks to its plan for multiple hikes this year.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 4.20% to 4.23%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.15% to 4.18%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.46% to 3.51%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage loan increased from 3.22% to 3.29%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan rose from 4.03% to 4.06%.

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