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Mortgage rates barely waivered from last week’s levels, with the 30-year mortgage rate staying around 4% for the last several weeks, Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey revealed.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.01% for the week ended Nov. 13, down from last week’s 4.02%. In 2013, the 30-year, FRM averaged 4.35%.
The 15-year, FRM is marginally down from last week’s 3.21%, dipping to 3.20%. A year ago it averaged 3.35%.
Additionally, the 5-year Treasury indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.02%, up from 2.97% last week and 3.01% a year ago.
The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.43% this week, down from last week’s 2.45% and last year’s 2.61%.
“Fixed mortgage rates were slightly down on mixed results from October's employment report. While the unemployment rate declined to 5.8%, nonfarm employment rose by 214,000 jobs, which was below consensus expectations. Net revisions for payroll employment in August and September added 31,000 more jobs to the initial readings,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist with Freddie Mac.
Once again, Bankrate noted that mortgage rates barely changed over the past week, with the 30-year, FRM ticking lower to 4.13% from 4.14% last week.
The 15-year, FRM decreased 3.32%, down from 3.34%, while the 5/1 ARM increased to 3.22%, up from 3.18% last week.
“Mortgage rates have entered a period of tranquility following the volatility seen in the first half of October. The monthly employment report showed continued solid job creation, underscoring the strength of the U.S. economic recovery. But meager wage growth is a counterbalance that could prompt the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low, despite improving economic fundamentals,” analysts with Bankrate said in its mortgage report.
“As this tug of war plays out, mortgage rates and bond yields remain in a holding pattern. Mortgage rates are closely related to yields on long-term government bonds,” the report added.
