Average long-term US mortgage rate falls fifth straight week

Mortgage rates pulled back for a fifth consecutive week, maintaining a streak that stretches back to the first of the year.

30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.72 percent, with an average 0.6 point for the week ending February 4, 2016, down from last week when it averaged 3.79 percent. Adjustable mortgage rates also moved lower, with the 5-year and 7-year ARMs inching down to 3.21 percent and 3.42 percent, respectively. These declines are not what the market anticipated when the Fed raised the Federal funds rate in December.

“We’re starting to get closer to the spring homebuying season, and we’re starting from a place of lower interest rates than we would have expected”, Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a Riverdale, New Jersey-based mortgage-data company, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Additionally, the 15-year FRM this week came in at 3.01%, down from 3.07% last week.

If home prices and interest rates continue to rise at the same pace, nationally, the average monthly payment on the median home will rise by $114 within 12 months and would be $240 more per month in 24 months.

“Market volatility – and the associated flight to quality – continued unabated this week”. Popular 15 year FRM interest rates at the bank are published at 3.125 % carrying an April of 3.316 % today.

For the week ending January 29, 2016, mortgage applications decreased 2.6 percent from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. Mortgage rates are closely related to yields on long-term government bonds. As far as ARMs go, 5 year loans are coming out at 2.750% at Capital One and an April of 3.207%. Experts claim financial market volatility has push rates down.