Maximum Lawful Rate of Interest for Residential Mortgages for the Month of March 2007 [37 Pa.B. 960]
[Saturday, February 24, 2007]The Department of Banking (Department), under the authority contained in section 301 of the act of January 30, 1974 (P. L. 13, No. 6) (41 P. S. § 301), hereby determines that the maximum lawful rate of interest for residential mortgages for the month of March 2007 is 7 1/4%.
The interest rate limitations under the State's usury statute were preempted to a great extent by Federal law, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (Pub. L. No. 96-221). Further preemption was instituted with the signing of Pub. L. No. 96-399, which overrode State interest rate limitations on any individual who finances the sale or exchange of residen-tial real property which the individual owns and which the individual occupies or has occupied as a principal residence.
Each month the Department is required by State law to compute and announce the ceiling rate on residential mortgages in this Commonwealth. This maximum rate is determined by adding 2.50 percentage points to the yield rate on long-term government bonds as published by the Federal Reserve Board and/or the United States Treasury. The latest yield rate on long-term government securities is 4.85 to which was added 2.50 percentage points for a total of 7.35 that by law is rounded off to the nearest quarter at 7 1/4%.
VICTORIA A. REIDER,
Acting Secretary[Pa.B. Doc. No. 07-314. Filed for public inspection February 23, 2007, 9:00 a.m.]
