There are continuing signs that the housing market is improving. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, for the second month in a row housing prices rose again in February which is the first back-to-back price increase since April 2007.
Furthermore, the results of the Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) were announced Friday through Freddie Mac which stated that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.80 percent with an average 0.7 point in the fourth week of April which is down from the previous week when the FRM averaged 4.82 percent. This time last year the 30-year FRM averaged 6.03 percent.
Also, the 15-year FRM last week averaged 4.48 percent with an average 0.7 point, which was unchanged from the previous week. This time last year the 15-year FRM was 5.62 percent. Freddie Mac began tracking the 15-year FRM back in August of 1991 and, according to their statistics, last weeks rate tied the lowest that the 15-year FRM rate has been since that time.
A year ago at this time the 1-year ARM averaged 5.29 percent; however, last week the one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.82 percent with an average 0.4 point, down from the previous week when it averaged 4.91 percent.
Despite the fact that long-term mortgage rates pulled back slightly last week the ARM rates still remained elevated compared to fixed-rate mortgages. It should be noted that interest rates for 1-year ARMs have exceeded those for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for more than two weeks which is the first time that this has happened since Freddie Mac began collecting ARM data back in January of 1984.