Mortgage rates bounced back this week but remained below 5 percent for borrowers with good credit and 20 percent down payments, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its weekly survey of lenders.
Applications for conventional purchase mortgages are up 22 percent since the end of February, and demand for refinancings is up 129 percent, Freddie Mac said, citing data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Freddie Mac said 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.87 percent with an average of 0.7 point for the week ending April 9, up from 4.78 percent a week ago and 5.88 percent a year ago.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.54 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from 4.52 percent last week and 5.42 percent a year ago.
Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 4.93 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from 4.92 percent last week and 5.56 percent a year ago.
One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.83 percent with an average 0.5 point, up from 4.75 percent last week and 5.18 percent a year ago.
Those rates were for mortgages eligible for purchase or guarantee by Freddie Mac. Borrowers taking out loans too large or risky for Freddie Mac, or providing down payments less than 20 percent, can expect to pay more.
Applications for both refinance and purchase loans were up last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported in a separate survey.
The MBA said loan applications were up 4.7 percent during the week ending April 3. Demand for purchase loans was up 11.1 percent, driven by a 17.1 percent jump in applications for government-backed loans, largely FHA. Demand for conventional purchase loans was up 7.7 percent.
Demand for refinance loans increased a more modest 3.2 percent. Refinance applications made up 77.9 percent of all mortgage applications during the week ending April 3, down from 79.1 percent the previous week.
Looking back one year, applications for purchase loans are down about 23 percent, while demand for refinance loans is up 150 percent. At this time a year ago, refinance applications made up 52.2 percent of mortgage applications.
Fannie Mae recently reported it nearly doubled the dollar volume of refinancings from February to March, to $77 billion — the company’s largest refinance month since 2003.
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