Mortgage rates fell further during the week ended Feb. 4, with the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) reaching 3.72%, down from 3.79% the week prior, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.59% (all rates are based on closings).
The average rate for a 15-year FRM was 3.01%, down from 3.07% the previous week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.92%.
The average rate for a five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) was 2.85%, down from 2.90%. A year ago, the five-year ARM averaged 2.82%.
“Market volatility – and the associated flight to quality – continued unabated this week,” says Sean Becketti, chief economist for Freddie Mac, in a release. “The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped another 15 basis points, and the 30-year mortgage rate fell seven basis points, as well, to 3.72 percent. Both the Treasury yield and the mortgage rate now are in the neighborhood of early-2015 lows. These declines are not what the market anticipated when the Fed raised the Federal funds rate in December.”
As Becketti points out, it will be interesting to see whether these lower rates increase the refinance share of mortgage activity in the weeks to come…