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Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Banker's Association could hardly have disagreed more over the direction mortgage rates took for the week ending March 31 and April 1 respectively.
Freddie saw mortgage rates rising across the board, albeit modestly. Its Weekly Mortgage Market Survey pegged the 30-year fixed rate at 6.04 percent, up from 6.01 the week before and the 15-year mortgage was up .02 percent to 5.58 percent. The ARMs showed greater increases: the 5/1 to 5.43 percent from 5.35 and the 1-year from 4.24 to 4.33 percent. Fees and points remained unchanged at 0.7 for the 5/1 and both fixed rate mortgages and 0.8 for the 1-year ARM.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's survey, which covers a substantially larger number of lenders, had all three categories of mortgages it tracks down, and in some cases down a lot, from the previous week. The 30-year decreased the most - a full .17 percent, to 5.91 percent. The 15-year dropped from 5.61 percent to 5.48 while the 1-year ARM decreased from 4.39 percent to 4.29 percent.
MBA's survey shows refinance activity creeping back up again; it represented 38.3 percent of all mortgage activity compared to 37.8 percent the previous week, but adjustable rate mortgages continued to decline in popularity, down 1.4 percent to 35.2 percent.
The two surveys are undoubtedly covering different universes of respondents, and are probably equally correct within the limitations of their methodology. It is heartening that both reports, n spite of bad news about oil prices, the dollar, the deficit, and other factors, indicate that rates are moving up and down within a very narrow range rather than taking off with a possible negative impact on the housing market.
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