Mortgage Rates Going Steady
RateEmpire.com
According to the reports from Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending on 15 November 2007, the mortgage interest rates for most of the loan types remained almost unchanged. With this the mortgage rate remained steady for two weeks consecutively.
The only exception to the status quo was the 5-year treasury index hybrid ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) and 30-year treasury. 5/1 ARM rose to 5.96 % with 0.4 point from 5.89 % the week before with 0.5 point. It was a rise of 0.07 %.
The mortgage rate for 1-year adjustable rate mortgage average rate was 5.50 %, which was the same in the survey for week ended 8 November. The only change was in the points and the average fees as it slid down to 0.5 from 0.6
Apart from one year ARM, the 30-year FRM (fixed rate mortgage) remained unchanged from the previous week at 6.24 % with 0.4 point. Also the Fed Prime Rate stood steady at 7.50 %.
On the other hand the 15 year fixed rate mortgage witnessed a 0.02 % drop and drifted to 5.88 5 from 5.90 %. The points and fees were the same as the week earlier at 0.4. What is notable is that both the FRM loans were at the same level as in the month of May in the current year.
The rate inaction was pretty much similar with Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey by Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The survey was for week ending 16 November 2007. As per that report the 15-year FRM experienced a substantial drop from 5.77 % to 5.71 %. The point went down from 1.13 to 1.12. On the other had 30 year FRM saw a drop of 1 basis point and rested at 6.18 %. But the points and fees decreased to 1.01 from 1.16.
Just as in the Primary Mortgage market Survey, here too the 1-year ARM stayed unaffected at 5.98 % but the points fell to 0.98 from 0.93.
But as earlier the loan applications again went down. The Market Composite Index, which is the measure for loan applications, declined 3.6 % on a seasonally adjusted basis and on unadjusted basis by 5.2 %. The Index was approximately 10 % lower than the statistics in the same week last year.
The only good news for housing and mortgage market this week was from National Association of Realtors. It reported a surprising gain of 0.2 % in the pending homes sale in the month of September. This indicates that the decline in the month of October and November will be lesser. But the index is still lower by 24 % as compared to the end of last year.
In their quarterly survey that included 150 metropolitan areas, the median sale price of single family homes dropped by just 2 % in the last four quarters in spite of broader declines otherwise.
All eyes are now set on consumer spending in the festive season, but speculations are that it will be weaker than usual.
Copyright 2007 RateEmpire.com
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