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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Average 30 Year Fixed Mortgage Rates decline to 4.11%, No "Refi Boom" in Sight

by Calculated Risk on 8/27/2014 04:27:00 PM

I use the weekly Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) to track mortgage rates. The PMMS series started in 1971, so there is a fairly long historical series.

For daily rates, the Mortgage News Daily has a series that tracks the PMMS very well, and is usually updated daily around 4 PM ET. The MND data is based on actual lender rate sheets, and is mostly "the average no-point, no-origination rate for top-tier borrowers with flawless scenarios". (this tracks the Freddie Mac series).

MND reports that average 30 Year fixed mortgage rates declined today to 4.11% from 4.13% yesterday.

One year ago rates were at 4.61%, so rates are down 50 bps year-over-year.

I've mentioned before that mortgage refinancing tends to pickup when mortgage rates drop by about 50 bps from the recent levels.  However rates were only at or above 4.60% for a short period - and many homeowners refi'd when rates were below 4% in 2012 and 2013.  So I don't expect a "refi boom" right now.

Here is a table from Mortgage News Daily: