Mortgage Rates: Week Ended April 12
Rates ended a volatile week even vs. last Friday. As a reminder, a poor jobs report helped rates end last week down .25%. Rates rose a bit this week when the minutes from the Fed’s March 20 rate policy meeting again showed a growing bias toward unwinding QE (aka bond buying to keep rates low) more quickly. This same thing happened in January and caused rates to rise about .375%, which didn’t dip meaningfully until last Friday. That dip is still holding as weaker U.S. economic data and concern over Cyprus/Italy fueled a bond rally—rates drop when bond prices rise on rallies.
Rates in 3 tiers shown below. Also below is a quick recap of the week’s events and a link to my daily commentary with the MortgageNewsDaily MBS team, which is more action oriented for rate shoppers each day.
CONFORMING RATES ($200,000 to $417,000) 0 POINT:
30 Year: 3.375% (3.495% APR)
FHA 30 Year: 3.25% (3.37% APR)
5/1 ARM: 2.5% (2.62% APR)
SUPER-CONFORMING RATES ($417,001 to $625,500 cap by county) 0 POINT:
30 Year: 3.625% (3.845% APR)
FHA 30 Year: 3.375% (3.495% APR)
5/1 ARM: 2.75% (2.87% APR)
JUMBO RATES ($625,501 to $2,00,000) 1 POINT:
30 Year: 3.5% (3.62% APR)
10/1 ARM: 3.125% (3.245% APR)
5/1 ARM: 2.5% (2.62% APR)
Lower or higher rates apply to specific borrower and property profiles. Lower or higher rates available using tax deductible points or zero-cost transactions. These rates assume full doc pricing on Single Family Home purchase loans for borrower with 740 FICO score or greater, at least 20% equity (unless FHA), and 6-12 months reserves left over after close (retirement assets counted at 60% of value for reserves). ARM rates adjust the first month after initial fixed period shown, and once per year thereafter until year 30. Adjusted rate calculated by adding 2.25% margin to 1yr LIBOR index at time of adjustment. At first adjustment LIBOR+margin cannot exceed start rate+5%, subsequent yearly adjustments can never be greater than 2% per year, total of all adjustments for 30yr life of loan can never exceed start rate+5%. Rates based on loan amount ranges shown and rates available at the time of production. Rates aren’t a loan commitment nor a loan guarantee, and are subject to change without notice.
*Conventional Super-Conforming cap = $625,500. FHA Super-Conforming cap = $729,750.
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Reference:
– Rates End Near Lows Of The Week—it COULD hold next week (MortgageNewsDaily)
– Succinct Summation Of The Week’s Events (Barry Ritholtz, TheBigPicture)