LendingTree's latest Mortgage Rate Competition Index revealed that borrowers with interest rates under 5% reversed course, inching backward for the week ending Mar. 12, 2019. 

The report states that for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, 84.7% of purchase borrowers received offers with interest rates under 5%, sliding from 86.7% last week. However, this is a slight increase from 2018’s rate when 84.5% of purchase offers were under 5%.

Notably, across all 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications made on LendingTree’s website, 19.66% of borrowers were offered an interest rate of 4.625%, making it the most common interest rate, according to the company. 

Furthermore, 81.7% of 30-year fixed-rate mortgage refinance borrowers received offers under 5%, just slightly under 81.8% one week prior. This is only a slim decrease from 2018’s rate when 82.7% 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 20.29% of borrowers, according to the report.

Interestingly, mortgage competition picked up this week, LendingTree reports that across all 30-year fixed-rate mortgage purchase applications on its site, the index came in at 0.78. However, the refinance market index was wider, coming in at 0.85.

This means by shopping for the best mortgage rates, homebuyers could have seen median lifetime savings of $36,370 in interest on a $300,000 loan. Additionally, refinance borrowers may save $39,735 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.