Q7: Why are some rows and counties missing in the “County” tab?
A: We only show estimates when there are at least 25 records (corresponding to ~500 loans)
for a category in a given quarter. This removes 13.6% of all rows in the county tab but
only 0.2% of all quarterly loan records. This limitation only affects the “County” tab, as
all other segments contain sufficient records.
Q8: Are any statistics smoothed or adjusted for seasonality?
A: Yes. The “Sales_Change_Quarter” and “Sales_Chnage_Since_2022Q2” fields apply the
estimated lock-in effect to an underlying sale rate that removes seasonal variation. All
other fields are unadjusted and do not exhibit strong seasonal patterns.
Q9: Are filters used in producing the statistics or estimates?
A: The data contain estimates for all fixed-rate mortgages in the U.S. The models used to
make these estimates are calibrated with filtered data. Please see the working paper for
more information on these filters.
Q10: Data are reported by quarter. When in the quarter are calculations performed?
A: The “Loans” field contains a count of active loans at the end of the quarter. The
“Sales_Change_Quarter” field is a count of estimated sales gained or lost during the
quarter due to lock-in. The “Sales_Change_Since_2022Q2” expresses this as a
cumulative total. All other fields are quarterly averages for loans active during the
quarter.
Q11: How do the “Fixed_Rate” and “New_Rate” fields compare to other data on average
mortgage rates, such as Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS)?
A: Most data on average mortgage rates, including the PMMS data, present average interest
rates for loans originating in a given period. In contrast, the “Fixed_Rate" field shows the
average mortgage rate for all active loans, most of which originated in previous periods.
The “New_Rate” field shows the predicted interest rate on these loans if they were to be
re-originated in the period. The “New_Rate” field will closely track average interest rates
but differ slightly as existing loans can have different credit characteristics than those
originated in a period. These fields contain averages for all fixed-rate mortgages, so they
may also differ from the PMMS data, which considers only applications for 30-year loans
submitted to Freddie Mac.