MORTGAGE RATES: According to Freddie Mac, with
mortgage rates starting to gradually increase, ending the last quarter of 2018 at 4.8% for the 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage rate, compared with 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017, there are not many borrowers left who can lower their
mortgage rate through a refinance.
"That means a home buyer with a 5 percent down payment and a
mortgage rate of 4.6 percent saw their house-buying power decrease from 394,000ドル to 364,000,ドル since last August because of the increase in
mortgage rates.
Freddie Mac reported the average
mortgage rate nationally rose to 4.72 percent last week, up from the 4.65 of the week before and a spike of nearly a full percentage point from the 3.83 that was reported for the last week of September 2017.
Permanent TSB Group Holdings Plc (LON: IL0A) was the latest bank to cut its
mortgage rate. Ulster Bank Ireland Ld (FAP.LS) and KBC Groep NV (EBR: KBC) have also reduced their mortgage costs.
Bankrate.com's weekly national survey has found
mortgage rates posted only slight changes during the week of August 15, with the benchmark 30-year fixed
mortgage rate inching to 3.57 percent, the company said.
The 30-year fixed
mortgage rate on Zillow(R) Mortgages is currently 3.96 percent, up eighteen points from this time last week.
The surge in first-time buyer numbers was helped in part by falling
mortgage rates. The average first-time buyer
mortgage rate was 3.92% in November, 0.27 percentage points lower than October (4.19%) as rates have dipped in response to low inflation and the low base rate.
Our medium-scale BVAR model includes eleven variables, in the following order: a measure of weather conditions (defined below), real gross domestic product (GDP), real personal consumption expenditures (PCE), a measure of lending standards, a survey-based indicator of consumers' perceptions of home-buying conditions, real residential investment, the unemployment rate, core PCE inflation, PCE inflation, CoreLogic home prices, and the 30-year
mortgage rate. (1)
Mortgage rates continue to trend lower, with the average 30-year fixed
mortgage rate setting another new record low of 3.75 percent, according to Bankrate.com's (NYSE: RATE) weekly national survey.
The primary
mortgage rate (the rate available to a borrower to purchase or refinance a home) is a key driver for accurate assessment of prepayment and default risk, which in turn is a key component in assessing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) value and risk.
Resona Bank also decided to hike the reference rate to which its floating-rate
mortgage rate is linked, starting in September.