Following a lackluster employment report for June, long-term U.S. Treasury bond yields eased somewhat this week, allowing mortgage rates to fall to unseen depths.
The Freddie Mac survey showed 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.56% for the week ending Thursday, a record low from last week’s 3.62%. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.51%.
The 15-year FRM, a popular refinancing choice, also set a new record, averaging 2.86%, down from last week‘s average of 2.89%. A year ago, the average rate for a 15-year FRM was 3.65%.
The average 30-year fixed has remained below 4% for 16 weeks. The average 15-year fixed has been below 3% for seven weeks.
Five-year, Treasury-indexed, hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 2.74%, also declining from 2.79% last week and falling from 3.29% a year earlier.
And one-year, Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 2.69%, up from last week’s 2.68% and down from 2.95% last year.
Only 80,000 net new jobs were added to the economy last month, not enough to lower the unemployment rate from 8.2%, Freddie Mac Chief economist Frank Nothaft noted.
“This was the concern of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting,” Nothaft said. “Minutes released from that meeting on July 11 revealed that a few members felt further monetary stimulus was needed to promote satisfactory growth in employment to meet the committee’s goal.”
Home loan analytics firm Bankrate, which surveys large banks, reported the 30-year FRM fell to 3.79% from 3.87%, while the 15-year FRM dropped to 3.05% from 3.13%. The 5/1 ARM ticked down to 2.95% from 2.96%.
