Anyone still waiting for a refinance window got the same answer Monday they have gotten all summer: not yet. The eight lenders RateZip tracks left all 27 posted rates unchanged, with the 30-year fixed running from 5.99% at AmeriSave to 7.125% at Rocket Mortgage. That 1.135-point gap between the cheapest and most expensive lender works out to about $299 a month on a $400,000 loan, far larger than any one lender's day-to-day movement.
Chart: RateZip · Source: lender-posted rates tracked daily by RateZip.
Behind the quiet morning, borrowers have been changing what they ask for. RateZip's Mortgage Demand Index, built from the mortgage inquiries consumers submit across its network, shows refinance falling from 39% of inquiries to 2% over the three months through August compared with the same months a year earlier. Home-equity products, HELOCs plus reverse mortgages, went the other way, rising from 43% to 76% of the mix. Total inquiry volume in August was 11% higher than July's and 157% higher than a year earlier.
That is the profile of a homeowner borrowing against the house rather than replacing the mortgage. FourLeaf Federal Credit Union, the only lender in the tracked set that posts a HELOC, lists it at 6.75%.
Buyers are getting more choices, not cheaper money
The picture for buyers is different: more homes to look at, financed at rates that keep drifting up. The national average 30-year fixed rate rose to 6.76% in the week ending September 10 from 6.71% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The 10-year Treasury yield, the benchmark long-term mortgage pricing most closely tracks, closed Thursday at 4.95%, up 18 basis points over the past week. Within RateZip's own set, Wells Fargo's posted 30-year is up 0.25 points from a week ago and U.S. Bank's 7/6 ARM is up 0.75 points, the biggest weekly move of any tracked product.
Buyers, meanwhile, are stepping back. Existing-home sales fell 2.0% in August to a 3.98 million annual rate, while inventory rose to 1.62 million units and unsold supply reached 4.9 months, the highest in more than a decade, according to National Association of Realtors figures reported by Mortgage News Daily. "Mortgage rates and home sales move in opposite directions, so it's not surprising to see a mild dip in home buying activity due to high mortgage rates," Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said in a statement.
New construction told the same story. RISMedia reported new-home sales fell 10.5% from July, with pending home sales at their lowest level since January.
Wednesday's Fed meeting
The next thing that could move any of this comes Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve wraps up its two-day meeting. Futures markets price a near-certain hold, according to The Mortgage Reports, which noted the meeting also brings updated dot-plot projections that could signal the rate path for the rest of the year.
For homeowners hoping a hold is the prelude to relief, Realtor.com senior economist Jiayi Xu offered a blunt read earlier this month. "We don’t expect any real mortgage rate relief this fall. But if inflation isn’t tamed, the pain will be real," she said in comments reported by RISMedia.
Today's posted rates: the full table
| Lender | 30-Yr | 15-Yr | 20-Yr | FHA 30-Yr | VA 30-Yr | Jumbo 30-Yr | 7/6 ARM | HELOC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AmeriSave | 5.99% / 6.476% | 5.125% / 5.955% | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| New American Funding | 6.75% / 6.866% | 6.125% / 6.316% | — | 6.25% / 7.287% | 6.375% / 6.806% | — | — | — |
| Rocket Mortgage | 7.125% / 7.41% | 6.375% / 6.84% | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Wells Fargo | 7% / 7.148% | 6.25% / 6.505% | — | — | 6.375% / 6.605% | — | 6.625% / 6.663% | — |
| U.S. Bank | 6.99% / 7.131% | 6.375% / 6.658% | 6.875% / 7.076% | 6.99% / 7.863% | 6.75% / 7.102% | 7.125% / 7.314% | 7.25% / 7.067% | — |
| Bank of America | 7.125% / 7.37% | 6.375% / 6.742% | 7% / 7.325% | — | — | — | 6.5% / 6.666% | — |
| Veterans United | — | — | — | — | 6.25% / 6.703% | — | — | — |
| FourLeaf Federal Credit Union | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6.75% / 6.75% |
Rates are each lender's own published rate as of 9:50 a.m. ET, collected from their public rate pages and feeds. The APR is the better cross-lender comparison; a figure in parentheses is today's change; a '—' means the lender doesn't post that product. How we collect and publish this: our rate methodology.
Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey via FRED®, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.