Average mortgage rates continued to follow Treasury bond yields a bit lower for the second consecutive week, according to Freddie Mac’s closely watched survey.
The long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield, at levels near 3.3%, was roughly 10 basis points lower than the week before as of Thursday morning when Freddie released the survey.
The average rate for the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage during the week ending April 28 dropped to 4.78% with an average 0.7 of a point from 4.80% a week ago and 5.06% a year ago.
Fifteen-year FRMs saw their average rate fall to 3.97% with an average 0.7 of a point in the most recent week, down from 4.02% the previous week and 4.39% a year ago.
The average rate for a five-year hybrid Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage during the week ending April 28 was 3.51% with an average of 0.6 of a point, down from 3.61% the previous week and 4% a year ago.
One-year Treasury ARMs saw their average rate drop to 3.15% with an average 0.6 of a point in the most recent week from 3.16% a week ago and 4.25% a year ago.
Among economic indicators that appear to have driven rates and bond yields lower were declines in most of the areas tracked by closely-watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price indices, according to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie.
He also noted that there were April declines in business and manufacturing activities in Philadelphia, Dallas and Richmond, according to reports from regional Federal Reserve banks.
