Fixed-mortgage rates moved slightly lower for the first time in almost two months as markets awaited the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision to continue its bond-buying program Freddie Mac said in a report Thursday.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage came in at 3.93%, down from 3.98% last week, compared to 3.66% last year, Freddie noted in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The 15-year, FRM decreased to 3.04%, down from 3.10% last week, while rising from 2.95% last year.
Meanwhile, the 5-year Treasury-index adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.79% this week, the same as last week and was also up from 2.77% a year ago.
Additionally, the 1-year Treasury-index ARM dropped to 2.57%, down from 2.58% and also down from 2.74% a year earlier.
“Mortgage rates were relatively unchanged this week as market participants awaited the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement. The Fed stated that economic growth has been expanding at a moderate pace and that labor market conditions have shown further improvement, although the unemployment rate remains elevated. It noted inflation has been running below the Fed’s longer-run objective as well. As a result, the Fed will continue its bond-buying program at the current pace and maintain its highly accommodative monetary policy stance,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac.
He added, “The Fed also affirmed that the housing sector has strengthened further. For instance, single-family housing permits increased nearly 2 percentage points in May to an annualized pace of 649,000 homes, the most since May 2008. In addition, homebuilder confidence in June rose to its highest reading since March 2006.”
Bankrate data also shows mortgage rates retreating.
Bankrate’s 30-year, FRM dropped to 4.12% from 4.14% a week earlier.
In addition, the 15-year, FRM decreased to 3.30%, down from 3.32%, while the 5/1 ARM dropped to 2.99% from 3%.
