Housing

Mortgage Loan Rates Remain at Recent Highs, Applications Decline

Paul Ausick

Published: October 11, 2017 7:30 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 7:19 am

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decrease of 2.1% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending October 6. During the week, mortgage loan rates rose on all five loan types that the MBA tracks.

On an unadjusted basis, the composite index decreased by 2% week over week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 0.1% compared with the week ended September 29. The unadjusted purchase index increased by 0.1% for the week and is now 7% higher year over year.

The MBA’s refinance index decreased by 4% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing dipped from 50.1% to 49%.

Adjustable rate mortgage loans accounted for 6.6% of all applications, up 0.6 percentage points from the prior week.

Quoted mortgage rates have remained unchanged for more than a week, according to a report in Mortgage News Daily, which also points out that rates have stayed in a narrow range at their highest levels in more than two months.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.12% to 4.16%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.09% to 4.11%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.42% to 3.44%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage loan increased from 3.30% to 3.33%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan ticked up from 3.99% to 4.00%.