Tag Archives: Mortgage Rates

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, operated by the online real estate database Zillow, released its weekly mortgage rates Tuesday. Zillow reports that 30-year fixed mortgage rates rose slightly to 4.14 percent, reversing the previous week’s decline from 4.09 percent at this time last week. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose early last week before leveling off near 4.13 percent on Friday.

It appears more consumers have taken notice of reports of slowing home price gains. The share of consumers in Fannie Mae's January National Housing Survey who said they expect home prices to increase in the next year fell 6 percentage points to 43 percent, while the share expecting prices to stay the same increased 7 percentage points to 45 percent. The average 12-month home price change expectation was 2.0 percent.

A new commentary from Fannie Mae attempts to address a perplexing question: With mortgage rates down steadily in the last several years and greater opportunity for significant savings, why have so many borrowers elected not to refinance?

In its weekly published Primary Mortgage Market Survey, Freddie Mac put the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 4.23 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending February 6, down from 4.32 percent previously. Meanwhile, Bankrate reported a drop of 7 basis points in the 30-year fixed average to 4.43 percent, with the 15-year fixed falling 6 points to 3.50 percent.

While homeowners are feeling more confident about the prospect of selling their homes, they do harbor concerns regarding the availability of home financing and the low inventory available for their next purchases, according to the Redfin Real-Time Seller Survey released Tuesday.

Mortgage rates closed out December—and the year—with one final, small increase, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. FHFA’s national data for December shows the contract interest rate on the composite of all mortgage loans was 4.25 percent, an increase of 3 basis points from the month prior.

Fixed mortgage rates this week moved down to their lowest levels so far in 2014, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and finance site Bankrate.com. Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac, pointed to weaker housing data as the driving force behind this week’s rate movements.

Mortgage rates may be rising, but the housing market doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, several indicators have improved alongside rising rates, according to the HousingPulse Tracking Survey released this week. The lending atmosphere is becoming friendlier, especially to first-time buyers. Simultaneously, the average time on market for non-distressed properties and the average sales-to-list price ratio both improved year-over-year in December.

It's been a quiet week for mortgage rates, which drifted down slightly as markets wait to see what comes of the Federal Open Market Committee's next meeting in late January.

Experts at Freddie Mac and Equifax expect falling unemployment and economic growth to keep the housing market steady in 2014. This, despite climbing interest rates and anticipated growth in housing prices nationwide. While industry economists welcome the idea of a steady, slowly recovering housing market, they also have a checklist of housing and economic indicators they're keeping tabs on that could influence the pace of recovery.