Mortgages rates fell slightly lower amid market expectations of no rate increase by the Federal Reserve, the latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac said.
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(Source: Freddie Mac)
On Wednesday, the Fed said that it would not raise the federal funds rate this month, citing the fact that the country’s economy still has not met the targets laid out by the Federal Open Markets Committee.
As a result, Sean Becketti, chief economist with Freddie Mac, said, “Treasury yields oscillated without a clear direction heading into the October FOMC meeting, as investors were confident there would be no rate increase.”
“While the FOMC left rates unchanged at this meeting, they kept a December rate hike as an option causing Treasuries to sell off in the latter part of the day, after our survey closed,” he added.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.76% for the week ending Oct. 29, falling from last week when it averaged 3.79%. In 2014, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.98%.
The 15-year FRM stayed frozen compared to last week and averaged 2.98%. A year ago, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.13%.
Also unchanged from last week, the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.89%. Last year, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.94%.
The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.54% this week, down from 2.62% last week. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.43%.
