As interest rates increase, the share of borrowers with rates under 5% is getting smaller.
According to LendingTree's Mortgage Rate Competition Index, borrowers with rates under 5% remained above 70% for the week ending Dec. 30, 2018, but are steadily decreasing.
The report states that for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, 70.3% of purchase borrowers received offers under 5%, falling from 73.4% last week. Notably, this is a decrease from 2017’s rate when 95.9% of purchase offers were under 5%.
(Click to enlarge, Source: LendingTree)
The report also highlights that across all 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications made on LendingTree’s website, 18.8% of borrowers were offered an interest rate of 4.75%, making it the most common interest rate.
Furthermore, 70% of 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance borrowers received offers under 5%, rising from 66.7% one week prior. This is significantly down from 2017’s rate when 95.8% of refinance offers were under 5%.
Lastly, across all 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage refinance applications, the most common interest rate was 4.625%. This rate was offered to 20.9% of borrowers, according to the report.
When it came to mortgage competition, LendingTree reports that across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications on its site, the index edged up 2 basis points from the previous week, coming in at 0.66. And the refinance market index was wider, climbing 5 basis points to 0.80.
NOTE: The LendingTree Mortgage Rate Competition Index measures the spread in the APR of the best offers available on its website.
