Mortgage rates continued to fall after last week’s significant drop and dipped to the lowest level since the week of June 6, 2013, the latest Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey said.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.92% for the week ended Oct. 23, down from 3.97% last week and 4.13% a year ago.
Also dropping, the 15-year, FRM declined from 3.18% a week ago to 3.08%. This is also down from 3.24% in 2014.
The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage slightly fell to 2.91%, falling from 2.92% a week prior and 3.00% a year ago.
The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM was the only one to increase, rising to 2.41%, compared to 2.38% a week prior and 2.60% a year ago.
“Fixed mortgage rates continued to fall this week after the yield on 10 year Treasuries dropped to their lowest point of the year. Existing home sales beat expectations in September clocking in at an annual rate of 5.17 million units, up 2.4% from August,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist with Freddie Mac.
“Housing starts were up 6.3% in September adding a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.017 million units. Building permits rose 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.018 million units in September,” he added.
Furthermore, Bankrate reported rates slightly rebounding, with the 30-year, FRM increasing to 4.05% from 4.01%.
The 15-year, FRM edged up to 3.21%, up from 3.23%, while the 5/1 ARM increased to 3.14%, up from 3.09%.
“Mortgage rates posted a very slight rebound as financial markets stabilized and tensions about the Ebola virus, corporate earnings, and the global economy all eased. Just one week ago, as financial markets were suddenly gripped with worry, volatility spiked with investors stampeding into bonds, driving both bond yields and mortgage rates lower,” the Bankrate report said.
