Real estate company Zillow’s latest statistics from its Mortgage Marketplace show the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.37 percent this week, down 15 basis points from the 4.52 percent recorded last Tuesday.
For most of the wraparound week that ended yesterday, August 27, the 30-year mortgage rate had fluctuated between 4.48 percent and 4.56 percent, before making a slow but steady drop closer to the final rate as of yesterday. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, on the other hand, settled at 3.34 percent, while 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgages were at 3.12 percent.
“Mortgage rates retreated late last week on a significant drop in new homes sales and weaker-than-expected manufacturing data,” said Zillow Mortgage Marketplace director Erin Lantz, explaining the variables that had driven the decrease in mortgage rates this week, the first time this has happened in five weeks. “This week, if scheduled economic reports reveal additional downbeat economic data, rates could drift even lower heading into the Labor Day weekend.”
Mortgage rates have been trending upwards since May, when it was first reported that the U.S. Federal Reserve may be curtailing its $85 billion a month bond purchases. At the present, the Fed’s decision to taper this program, known colloquially as “QE3” (quantitative easing), is contingent on certain economic criteria and expectations being met, and if they are, the Fed may choose to start slowing down its bond purchases as early as September.
It was, in fact, the release of the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting that had caused the latest spike in rates, which took place last week on several mortgage surveys and trackers.