Monthly Interest Rate Survey

Each month, the Federal Housing Finance Board conducts a survey of rates and terms on conventional mortgage loans. The survey is known as the "Monthly Interest Rate Survey" or "MIRS." Before October 1989, the former Federal Home Loan Bank Board conducted MIRS.

The Finance Board asks a sample of mortgage lenders to report the terms and conditions on all single-family, fully amortized, purchase-money, nonfarm loans that they close during the last five business days of the month. The survey excludes FHA-insured and VA-guaranteed loans, multifamily loans, mobile home loans, and refinancings. In 1996, 378 lenders reported a total of 133,458 individual loans.

The survey provides monthly information on interest rates, loan terms, and house prices by property type (all, new, previously occupied), by loan type (fixed- or adjustable-rate), and by lender type (savings associations, mortgage companies, commercial banks, and savings banks), as well as information on 15- and 30-year fixed-rate loans. In addition, the survey provides quarterly information on conventional loans by major metropolitan area and by Federal Home Loan Bank district and quarterly information on mortgage product shares.

The Finance Board provides annual historical data from the survey. Some of the annual data series go back to 1963, and several of the monthly data series go back to 1973. These data series may be downloaded.

By law, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac use information from this survey when they determine the maximum size of loan that they can purchase or guarantee. Additionally, since 1980, data from this survey has been the source of the National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders, a once-popular adjustable-rate mortgage index. This index, formerly published by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, was the only ARM index that Federally chartered savings associations could use for a period in the early 1980s.

  1. Monthly Press Release

    1. Text of monthly release
      www.fhfb.gov/mirstext.htm

    2. Monthly or quarterly tables for download (.wk1 format)
      Previous download problems have been resolved.
      (To save, right click on the link and choose "Save" or
      follow link and choose "Save")
      1. Monthly table by property type
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl1.wk1
      2. Monthly table by loan type
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl2.wk1
      3. Monthly table by lender type
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl3.wk1
      4. Quarterly table by metropolitan area
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl4.wk1
      5. Monthly table, 15- and 30-year fixed-rate loans
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl5.wk1
      6. Quarterly table by Federal Home Loan Bank district
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl6.wk1
      7. Quarterly table by mortgage product shares
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl7.wk1
      8. Annual table by metropolitan area
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl8.wk1
      9. Annual table by state
        www.fhfb.gov/mirstbl9.wk1

  2. National Average Contract Mortgage Rate--Monthly Release
    www.fhfb.gov/armindex.htm

  3. National Average Contract Mortgage Rate--Index History
    www.fhfb.gov/idx_hist.htm

  4. Annual Summary, Rates & Terms on Conventional Mortgage Loans
    1. Introduction
      www.fhfb.gov/mirs_ann.htm
    2. Technical Notes
      www.fhfb.gov/mirsnote.htm
    3. List of Tables for Download
      www.fhfb.gov/tables.htm



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