Altadena Real Estate

For people that plan on staying in their homes for at least the next couple of years, it may well be worth looking into refinancing their existing mortgages. According to Inman News, record-low mortgage rates have sparked another refinancing boom but aren’t doing much to spur homebuyers into action, according to the results of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey.

Demand for refinancings was up nearly 6% during the week ending August 20th when compared to the previous week, and down 26% from four weeks ago, reaching the highest level since May 2009.

Demand for purchase loans was essentially flat, rising 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week, and down 1.1 percent on an unadjusted basis. Looking back a year, demand for purchase loans was down nearly 39 percent.

Requests for refinancings accounted for 82.4% of all mortgage loan applications — the highest share observed since January 2009.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.55% from 4.6%, with points decreasing to 0.89 from 0.92 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. This was the lowest 30-year contract rate ever recorded in the survey, which dates to 1990.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.91% from 3.99%, with points increasing to 1.64 from 1.05 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. This was the lowest 15-year contract rate ever recorded in the survey. But due to the increase in points, the effective rate increased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 6.84% from 6.9%, with points increasing to 0.22 from 0.21 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans.

Steve and I know several very competent mortgage professionals. Please call or email us any time for our recommendations.