Monthly Interest Rate Survey
Each month, the 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 2002, 151 lenders reported a total of 350,031 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 FHLBank district.

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.
- posted by Mark Pane @ 6:54 PM 0 comments