Mortgage Rates Down to End the Month January 30, 2012

Home loan rates descended for the week ending January 27, 2012 after the Fed put out a press release on their revised position regarding interest rates.  The central bank announced that have extended the time frame in which they will hold short term rates at next to zero percent. 

The Federal Reserve’s announcement called for the Fed to keep short-term interest rates at exceptionally low levels at least through late 2014.  Previous Fed announcements called for short term rates to be maintained at the current level through mid-2013.  When that announcement was made it was a shock to the bond market, as it was this time around.

With the announcement, bond prices rallied and interest rates fell.  The market had been snoozing up to the announcement with little change in bank rates and mortgage rates and then mortgage backed securities were lifted by the Fed position and continued to move higher through Friday, leaving mortgage rates and costs operating near all time best levels at week’s end.

Results of the Selectcdrates.com mortgage rate survey indicated that all mortgage loan terms ended the week with lower interest rates.  The rate on the 30 year fixed rate home loan was down by nine basis points or 9/100ths of a percent.  The average 30 year mortgage rate form the top ten bank mortgage lenders in the weekly mortgage rates survey was 4.041 percent compared to 4.130 percent in the previous week.

The average rate on a 15 year mortgage was lower by 13 basis points.  The interest rate for the 20 year loan now stands at 3.250 percent after rising to 3.381 percent on the prior week.

The current rate for the 20 year mortgage loan based on the most recent survey is 3.797 percent.  The 20 year fixed rate loan is now costing borrowers 14 basis points less than it was the week earlier.

The short term, ten year loan made a rather sizeable rate reduction relative to the shorter term of this loan.  After a drop of 11 basis points, the average ten year fixed rate mortgage is available at 3.059 percent.  The average rate on the ten year mortgage was 3.173 percent in the previous survey.

For the FHA mortgages in the survey, the average rate declined by seven basis points.  The pricing on FHA mortgage rates continues to swing wildly with significant rate difference among the biggest bank mortgage lenders offering this home loan product.  The average 30 year term FHA mortgage rate ended the week at 3.913 percent.

Jumbo mortgage borrowers are not receiving the bulk of the benefits that the other home loan products experienced this week.  The average rate on a 30 year jumbo home loan was less expensive by just 2.56 basis points.  The jumbo home loan lenders in this week’s survey offer the product with an average rate of 4.305 percent which compares to a rate of 4.330 percent in the preceding survey.

The Selectcdrates.com mortgage rate survey collects data on mortgage rates, points charged and loan APRs from the top bank mortgage lenders across the nation.  The mortgage interest rate data is collected on the last business day of the week, the most recent survey results are for January 27, 2012. 

Mortgage rates included in the Selectcdrates.com weekly mortgage rate survey include the mortgage interest rates, points and loan APRs from the nation’s largest banks including: Chase Bank mortgage, US Bank mortgage, Citibank mortgage, Bank of America mortgage, TD Bank mortgage, Wells Fargo mortgage as well as other top bank mortgage lenders.

The mortgage rates displayed are generally based on home loans with a minimum 20% down payment and are available for the most credit worthy borrowers.  The loan down payment, net loan amount, borrower’s credit profile, geographic location of the property and other factors will impact the mortgage interest rate and costs on an individual mortgage loan request. 

To review a current list of the top bank mortgage lenders and mortgage rates for the January 27, 2012 weekly bank mortgage rate survey please see the following mortgage rate tables: 30 year mortgage rates, 15 year mortgage rates, 20 year mortgage rates, 10 year mortgage rates, FHA mortgage rates and jumbo mortgage rates.  Bank mortgage rates are also available at Bank of America mortgage rates, Citibank mortgage rates, Chase mortgage rates and Wells mortgage rates.  Individual state mortgage rates can be found at the following pages: Illinois mortgage rates, Massachusetts mortgage rates, Ohio mortgage rates, Missouri mortgage rates and more.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 2:08 pm and is filed under US Mortgage Rates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.