The average rate for a benchmark 30-year mortgage has inched up a total of 1 basis point (0.01 percentage point) over the past two weeks to 2.88 percent, which is only 2 basis points above the benchmark rate at the same time last year and within 22 basis points of its all-time low.
At the same time, the average rate for a 5-year adjustable rate mortgage has effectively held at 2.42 percent, which is 69 basis points lower than at the same time last year and within 2 basis points of its all-time low, while the average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage has inched up a total of 2 basis points to 2.19 percent, which is within 9 basis points of its all-time low and still 18 basis points lower than at the same time last year.
At the same time, purchase mortgage loan activity in the U.S. remains depressed and pending sales activity in San Francisco has just dropped on a year-over-year basis for the first time since the middle of last year.