Mortgage Rates Up, Down, Take Your Pick
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Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Banker's Association could hardly have disagreed
more over the direction mortgage rates took for the week ending March
31 and April 1 respectively.
Freddie saw mortgage rates rising across the board, albeit
modestly. Its Weekly Mortgage Market Survey pegged the 30-year fixed
rate at 6.04 percent, up from 6.01 the week before and the 15-year
mortgage was up .02 percent to 5.58 percent. The ARMs showed greater
increases: the 5/1 to 5.43 percent from 5.35 and the 1-year from 4.24 to 4.33
percent. Fees and points remained unchanged at 0.7 for the 5/1 and both fixed
rate mortgages and 0.8 for the 1-year ARM.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's survey, which covers a substantially
larger number of lenders, had all three categories of mortgages it tracks down,
and in some cases down a lot, from the previous week. The 30-year decreased
the most - a full .17 percent, to 5.91 percent. The 15-year dropped from
5.61 percent to 5.48 while the 1-year ARM decreased from 4.39 percent to 4.29
percent.
MBA's survey shows refinance activity creeping back up again; it represented
38.3 percent of all mortgage activity compared to 37.8 percent the previous
week, but adjustable rate mortgages continued to decline in popularity, down
1.4 percent to 35.2 percent.
The two surveys are undoubtedly covering different universes of respondents,
and are probably equally correct within the limitations of their methodology.
It is heartening that both reports, n spite of bad news about oil prices, the
dollar, the deficit, and other factors, indicate that rates are moving up and
down within a very narrow range rather than taking off with a possible negative
impact on the housing market.
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