Mortgage Loan Rates on the Rise Again

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications Wednesday morning, noting a decrease of 1.1% in the group’s seasonally adjusted composite index for the week ending July 12. Mortgage interest rates increased on all five types of loans the MBA tracks. The prior week’s report was adjusted to account for the Independence Day holiday.

On an unadjusted basis, the MBA’s composite index increased by 24% in the past week. The seasonally adjusted purchase index decreased by 4% compared with the week ended July 5. The unadjusted purchase index rose by 21% for the week and was 7% higher year over year.

Mortgage loan rates for a top-tier 30-year fixed-rate loan rose by more than 0.1% to 3.95% last week, according to Mortgage News Daily. As of Tuesday night, top-tier borrowers were paying 3.96% for that loan. The week-over-week yield on a 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose from 1.98% to 2.11% as of last night’s close. A year ago, the 10-year note yielded 2.85%.

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Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting, said:

Coming out of the July 4th holiday, applications were lower overall, with purchase activity slipping almost 4 percent. Refinance applications increased, with activity reaching its highest level in a month, driven mainly by FHA applications. Historically, government refinance activity lags slightly in response to rate changes.

The MBA’s refinance index increased by 2% week over week, and the percentage of all new applications that were seeking refinancing rose from 48.7% to 50.0%.

Adjustable-rate mortgage loans accounted for 4.9% of all applications, down 0.4 percentage points compared with the prior week.

According to the MBA, last week’s average mortgage loan rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 4.04% to 4.12%. The rate for a jumbo 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased from 4.03% to 4.07%. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.42% to 3.48%.

The contract interest rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage loan increased from 3.56% to 3.58%. Rates on a 30-year FHA-backed fixed-rate loan rose from 3.97% to 4.01%.
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