U.S. mortgage rates barely reflected any change this week, according to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage market survey.
The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rates stuck at 4.10 percent, the same as last week. The rate was 4.57 percent at the same time, last year.
The average 15-year-fixed mortgage rates ticked down slightly to 3.24 percent from last week's 3.25 percent. It averaged 3.59 percent at the same time, last year.
The five-year treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable mortgage rate also remained unchanged at 2.97 percent from last week. The rate was 3.28 percent a year ago.
The average one-year treasury-indexed adjustable mortgage rate continued its upward trend increasing to 2.40 percent from last week's 2.39 percent. The rates averaged 2.71 percent at the same time, last year.
Freddie Mac experts say that the light manufacturing index report didn't cause any change in the mortgage rates.
"Mortgage rates were little changed amid a week of light economic reports," Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac, said in a statement.
"The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate remained unchanged from the previous week at 4.10%. Of the few releases, the ISM's manufacturing index rose to 59.0 in August from 57.1 the previous month. This was the highest reading of the index since March 2011," he added.
The low rates have, however, boosted home loan applications, the Mortgage Banking Association stated.
Usually, home loan interest rates depend largely on the yield on treasuries. Though the yield on the five-year treasuries has increased, mortgage rates haven't ticked up.
Why?
Because mortgage lenders aren't creating enough demand in the market, according to Bloomberg. Experts told the agency that there are several mortgage loans in the market that can be refinanced below today's rates, but lenders are skeptical about them.
"...mortgage lenders do not see today's lower mortgage rates as justifying an expansion in production capacity," Bloomberg cited a Goldman Sacchs report adding that the lenders "expect the recent rates rally to be short-lived and interest rates to move higher soon."
This is, in fact, true. Market analysts are saying that rates won't remain this low in the long run and when they do start picking up, they will rise rapidly.
"...when rates do rise, they won't go up gradually, like a gently sloping hill," Holden Lewis, assistant managing editor at Bankrate told Realtor.com.
"They'll march upward in steps, like a flight of stairs. That first step might be a doozy. It might happen in the coming week (doubtful) or months from now."
