The average rate for a 30-year mortgage has inched down another 4 basis points over the past two weeks to 3.60 percent, which is 85 basis points (0.85 percentage points) below its mark at the same time last year, a 15-week low and within 20 basis points of a three/six-year low, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Mortgage Market Survey data.
At the same time, the average rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage has inched down another 3 basis points to 3.04 percent, which is 84 basis points below its mark at the same time last year, while the average rate for a 5-year adjustable slipped 2 basis points to 3.28 percent, which is 62 basis points below its mark at the same time last year, for an inverted spread of 23 basis points between the 15-year fixed and 5-year adjustable rates.
And while the Fed has signaled its intention to leave the federal funds rate unchanged over the next year, and then to start raising the rate in 2021, the probability of another rate cut in 2020 has ticked up to 68 percent with a nominal (4 percent) chance of a rate hike, according to an analysis of the futures market.