Mortgage Rates Increase Moderately After Last Weeks Big Jump

By: Jann Swanson •

While mortgage rates continued to increase, the pace at least, slowed a bit from the double digit jumps taken during the week of November 3.

Freddie Mac's Weekly Mortgage Survey for the week ended November 10 showed the average rate for the 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 6.36 percent, up five basis points from the previous week. Rates in this category had gone up 16 basis points the week before.

15-year mortgages increased from 5.85 percent to 5.89 percent during the week; again this was a restrained increase compared to the 16 basis point jump the previous week. Fees and points for both the 30 year and the 15 year fixed rate product remained unchanged at 0.5.

The two adjustable rate mortgages tracked by Freddie Mack were also up - five basis points in the case of the 5/1 hybrid ARM to 5.81 percent and a mere 3 percent in the case of the 1-year ARM to 5.12 percent. Fees and points increased 0.1 for each to 0.6.

The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Application Survey for the week ended November 11 also reported modest rate increases. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage moved from 6.31 percent to 6.33 percent with points, including the origination fee, decreasing substantially, from 1.37 to 1.26. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage increased two basis points to 5.87 percent while fees dropped to 1.24 from 1.26. The one-year ARM was up a scant single basis point to 5.46 percent with points also up .01 to 0.97.

The business week was shortened by the Monday Veterans' Day holiday and mortgage loan applications volume was down 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, which took the holiday into consideration, from a week earlier. On an unadjusted basis the index was down 12.1 percent from the week ended November 4 and off 13.7 percent from the same week in 2004.

The purchase index increased 2.6 percent from the previous week while the refinance index was down 5.4 percent. Refinances accounted for 40.4 percent of all mortgage applications, down from 41.7 percent the previous week but ARMs were up to 32.9 percent of all mortgage applications, an increase of 3 basis points.