The 30-year fixed mortgage rates rose for the second week in a row to an average of 4.37% with an average 0.7 point from 4.35% last week.
This places the no-point rate at about 4.55%. Mortgage application activity appears sensitive to rate levels as the Refinance Index backed up further in the week ending Sept. 10. It declined nearly 11% to 4395. Since hitting a peak of 5085 at the end of August, the Refinance Index is down 13.6%.
The Labor Day weekend/end of summer, however, probably created some noise in the results. Borrowers might also be expecting that rates will set new record lows and are waiting for this to happen. Additionally, capacity constraints, tight underwriting standards, and the uncertain economic environment remain influences to refinancing activity.
Meanwhile, 15-year fixed mortgage rates set a new record low of 3.82% in the week ending Sept. 16, down one basis point from the previous report.
The 5/1 hybrid ARMs also slipped a basis point to 3.55% and is just a basis point above its record low hit in early September, while one-year ARM rates declined to 3.40% from 3.46%.
