The average rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage was down nearly a quarter point this week( March 25, 2019) from a week earlier, its biggest drop in over a decade. Freddie Mac says the average rate fell to 4.06%.
Lower rates are also boosting refinancing applications, which jumped 12%. As of last week, 3.3 million homeowners stood to save money by refinancing their mortgages.
A renewed boom in the mortgage market would be a benefit to lenders that were hard hit last year as rates rose. Roughly half of mortgages these days are originated by nonbank firms, which, unlike banks, don’ t have other lines of business or large balance sheets to fall back on when business dries up. Many depended disproportionately on refinancings and had to slim down or merge as rates rose.
Source: Ben Eisen, Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2019