Mortgage Rates Up While Application Volume Drops

Mortgage rates were up for the week ended April 6th and 7th according to the weekly surveys released by Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association respectively. However, Freddie Mac in its Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey recorded substantial rate jumps while MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported that rates barely budged.

In the Freddie Mac survey the 30-year fixed rate mortgage moved from 6.36 percent the previous week to 6.43 percent and fees and points were up from 0.5 to 0.6. The 15-year fixed rate loan average increased a full ten basis points to 6.10 percent. Fees and points were unchanged at 0.5.

Adjustable rate mortgages also saw fairly hefty rate increases. The 5/1-year ARM jumped from 6.02 percent to 6.11 percent with fees and points remaining at 0.6. The 1-year ARM showed the most modest increase of any of the products tracked by this survey, with the interest rate increasing 6 basis points to 5.57 percent and fees and points declining from 0.8 to 0.7. All four interest rates represented new highs for the year thus far.

MBA's survey reported the 30-year fixed increased from 6.49 percent to 6.50 percent with points, including the origination fee, increasing from 1.13 to 1.20. The average contract interest rate for the 15-year fixed rate mortgage increased from 6.15 percent to 6.17 percent with points increasing to1.16 from 1.12 and the 1-year ARM was up one basis point to 5.97 with points unchanged at 0.84. All averages are for 80 percent loan to value mortgages.

Mortgage activity dropped for the week. The Market Composite Index which measures loan application volume decreased 5.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis and 5.1 percent on an unadjusted basis from the previous week. The Index was down 14.7 percent when compared to the same week one year ago.

Refinancing lost a small bit of its share of overall mortgage activity. Last week it represented 36.0 of all mortgage applications compared to 36.6 the week ending April 1. Adjustable rate mortgages claimed a 28.6 percent market share, a tiny change from 18.5 the previous week.