The RDS Business Intelligence team just updated their interactive dashboards in Tableau Public with regards to both mortgage rates, and mortgage applications.

MORTGAGE RATES

As of March 25, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 3.17%. From an historical perspective, this is still an incredibly low rate. However, it’s worth noting, as we see in the screenshot below, that the March 25 rate is up 20% over the ALL-TIME low rate of 2.71% on January 7, 2021:

March closed with an average rate of 3.08%, down 12.4% versus January (2.74%) and down 9.6% versus February (2.81%)

MORTGAGE APPLICATIONS

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports weekly on two types of mortgage applications:

  • MBA Purchase Index: The Purchase Index is a leading indicator of home sales by 4-6 weeks, meaning that it is a predictor of housing activity. Housing economists and home builders use the index to forecast new and existing home sales.
  • MBA Refinance Index: The Refinance Index is a tool to predict mortgage activity. Homebuilders pay attention to the Refinance Index because it is a leading indicator of home sales. On the other hand, mortgage investors also take notice of the index as it is a leading indicator of mortgage pre-payment activity. 

MBA Purchase Index

The Purchase Index as of March 26 stands at 297.3, up 12% versus the 2021 low of 264.9 on February 19.

MBA Refinance Index

While still high relative to historic trends, the March 26 Refinance Index of 3,242 is down almost 17% versus the 2021 high of 3,918 on January 7. But it’s interesting to note how the interest in refinancing has changed in just one year. The current index is down 32% versus the same date in 2020, and 50% compared to the 12-year high of 6,419 hit on March 6.

We’ll be updating our Home Sales dashboard as soon as the data is available.

Again, for an interactive look at all of topics discussed above, as well as other aspects of the U.S. economy, visit our TABLEAU PUBLIC PAGE.

To learn more about Recovery Decision Science contact:

Kacey Rask : Vice-President, Portfolio Servicing

[email protected] / 513.489.8877, ext. 261

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