Coming out of the holidays and into the start of 2017, the 30-year mortgage rate continued to decline after several weeks of record highs.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Jan. 6 recorded that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 4.32% from 4.39%.
This is a continuation from the previous week’s drop when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.39% from 4.45%.
However, the most recent week’s results include an adjustment to account for the New Year’s Day holiday, while the previous week’s results were adjusted for the Christmas holiday.
The decline is a change from the record high set right before the end of 2017 when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to its highest level since May 2014, rising to 4.41%, from 4.28%.
Most of the other mortgage products followed suite and decreased, according to the MBA.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) decreased to 4.27% from 4.37%.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA decreased to 4.08% from 4.22%, while the average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.56% from 3.64%.
The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs posted the only increase and ticked up to 3.32% from 3.28%.
On the application side, mortgage applications increased 5.8% from one week earlier.
Broken up, the Refinance Index increased 4% from the previous week, as the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 6% from one week earlier.
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 51.2% of total applications from 52.2% the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 5.5% of total applications.
The Federal Housing Administration’s share of total applications increased to 11.7% from 11.6% the week prior. Similarly, the Veteran Affairs’ share of total applications increased to 12.8% from 12.3% the week prior. The United States Department of Agriculture’s share of total applications decreased to 0.9% from 1.1% the week prior.
