- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has reported an uptick in mortgage rates from June to July 2015. This is according to the Monthly Interest Rate Survey (MIRS), which measures several indices of new mortgage contracts to arrive at a national average. July’s average was 4.02% up 17 basis points from June’s 3.8%.
- The FHFA has also released its second quarter Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) refinance results. According to the report refinances remained unchanged between the first and second quarters of 2015, 31,561 borrowers refinanced with HARP funds, which represented 5% of all U.S. refinances. HARP was established in 2009 in order to assist homeowners unable to refinance because of a decline in their home value. As of March the FHFA estimated that there were over 500,000 borrowers eligible for the HARP program.
- Also according to the FHFA house prices rose 1.2% from the first to the second quarter (Q2) of 2015 and are up more that 5% over Q2 201. This is according FHFA’s House Price Index (HPI) which has been up for the last 16 consecutive quarters.
Tag Archives: Mortgage Interest Rates
Friday’s Government Reports
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) “Leveraging technology to empower mortgage consumers at closing” found that consumers would benefit from electronic closings. Results indicate that those consumers who completed a closing on an electronic platform had a superior experience with regard to understanding, efficiency, and feeling empowered compared to borrowers who used paper forms.
- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its monthly interest rate survey for June 2015. The average interest rate was up 10 basis points from 3.75 to 3.85% from may to June. Many lenders use this rate to reset the interest rate on some ARMs.
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Racial Discrepancy in Mortgage Interest Rates, by Ping Cheng, Zhenguo Lin, & Yingchun Liu, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Vol. 51, No. 1, 2015.
- House Prices, Local Demand, and Retail Prices, by Johannes Stroebel & Joseph Vavra, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10612.
- Housing Value Estimation: An Application of Forecast Combination to Residential Property Valuation, by Dennis Glennon, Hua Kiefer & Tom Mayock, May 18, 2015.
DATA! On US Housing Market Conditions
HUD has released a new online database on U.S. Housing Market Conditions. It can be searched by location and by report type. The website also includes some analysis of national, regional, state, metropolitan and local markets. The website includes some important reports, including National Housing Market Summaries, HUD Policy Development and Research Briefings and the Administration’s National Housing Scorecards.
I found the National Housing Market Summary particularly interesting, with figures from the second quarter of 2013 on
| Mortgage Interest Rates (%) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage Delinquency Rates (%) | |||||||||
| FHA Market Share | |||||||||
| FHA Mortgage Insurance (thousands) | |||||||||
| Private and VA Mortgage Insurance (thousands) | |||||||||
| Residential Fixed Investment (SA real annual growth rate, %) |
| Homeownership Rates (%) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vacancy Rates (%) | |||||||||
| Housing Stock (thousands) | |||||||||
| Households (thousands) |
