Fixed mortgage rates moved slightly higher during the week ended Sept. 3, as market volatility continued, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 3.89%, up from 3.84% the previous week. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.10%.
The average rate for a 15-year FRM was 3.09%, up from 3.06% the week prior. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.24%.
The average rate for a five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) was 2.93%, up from 2.90%. A year ago, the five-year ARM averaged 2.97%.
The average rate for a one-year Treasury-indexed ARM was 2.62%, unchanged from the previous week. At this time last year, the one-year ARM averaged 2.40%.
Sean Becketti, chief economist for Freddie Mac, says mortgage industry professionals and consumers shouldn't be reading too much into the five basis point increase.
‘'Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night,' said Bette Davis in All About Eve,'’ Becketti says in the release. ‘That could just as well have been Janet Yellen, or a specialist at the New York Stock Exchange, or the head of the People's Bank of China on yet another week with lots of volatility on essentially no new information.
‘The Fed took great pains at the Jackson Hole conference to keep all their options open and to avoid making too much – or too little – of the situation in China and the volatility in global equity markets,’ he adds. ‘This Friday's employment report is the last piece of significant, solid evidence the Federal Open Market Committee will have to consider before their September decision. The Street appears to be calling it a coin flip. There won't be a clear direction for mortgage rates until the Fed makes its September decision, at the earliest.’