Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s weekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it each Friday afternoon.
- The Federal Reserve recently announced a smaller rate hike of only 50-basis points, as opposed to the previous multiple 75-basis point hikes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that “data received for October and November show a welcome reduction in the monthly pace of price increases, but it will take substantially more evidence to give confidence that inflation is on a sustained downward path.”
- The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.31% as of December 15, 2022, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey®. This was down from 6.33% last week and 3.12% last year. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.54%, down from 5.67% last week and 2.34% last year.
- Mortgage applications increased 3.2% from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 9, 2022. The Refinance Index increased 3% from last week, and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 4% from last week.
- Fannie Mae announced changes to its automated underwriting system to allow borrowers without a credit score access to loans as part of its Equitable Housing Finance Plan, according to Insider. Mortgage lenders will now be able to use borrower’s bank account statements to establish creditworthiness.
