LendingTree's latest Mortgage Rate Competition Index revealed that borrowers with interest rates under 5% inched forward for the week ending Mar. 5, 2019. 

The report states that for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, 86.7% of purchase borrowers received offers with interest rates under 5%, inching forward from 86.5% last week. Notably, this is a slight decrease from 2018’s rate when 87.3% of purchase offers were under 5%.

The report also highlights that across all 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications made on LendingTree’s website, 19.87% of borrowers were offered an interest rate of 4.625%, making it the most common interest rate.

Furthermore, 81.8% of 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance borrowers received offers under 5%, crawling backwards from 82% one week prior. This is still a moderate decrease from 2018’s rate when 85.1% of refinance offers were under 5%.

Lastly, across all 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage refinance applications, the most common interest rate was 4.625%. This rate was offered to 19.9% of borrowers, according to the report.

When it came to mortgage competition, LendingTree reports that across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications on its site, the index came in at 0.71. However, the refinance market index was wider, coming in at 0.80.

This means by shopping for the best mortgage rates, homebuyers could have seen median lifetime savings of $33,123 in interest on a $300,000 loan. Additionally, refinance borrowers may save $37,295 by shopping for the lowest rate.

“The distribution of rates — and as a result, the Mortgage Rate Competition Index — has widened as rates increased, reflecting how mortgage lenders may change the rates at which they can offer consumers loans, depending on their unique business circumstances,” LendingTree writes.