Average 30-year mortgage rate declines to 3.69 percent

WASHINGTON » Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for a second straight week, edging closer to historically low levels at the start of the spring home-buying season.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to 3.69 percent from 3.78 percent last week.

The average rate for a 15-year mortgage, popular with homeowners who refinance, eased to 2.97 percent from 3.06 percent last week.

A year ago the average 30-year mortgage stood at 4.40 percent and the 15-year mortgage at 3.42 percent. Mortgage rates have remained low even though the Federal Reserve in October ended its monthly bond purchases, designed to hold down long-term rates.

Top CPB shareholders selling

Central Pacific Bank’s parent said its two largest shareholders, ACMO-CF LLC and Carlyle Financial Services Harbor LP, will offer for sale a combined 7,605,388 shares of the bank’s common stock in a secondary offering and will receive all of the proceeds from the transaction.

No date for the sale has been determined yet.

ACMO-CF and Carlyle Financial Services Harbor own 8,072,006 shares each — a total of 16,144,012 shares, or 23.2 percent apiece of the company — according to Central Pacific Financial Corp’s proxy filed Feb. 27. The two funds were primarily responsible for keeping Central Pacific afloat when they provided the bank with a $189.2 million capital infusion in exchange for shares in February 2011. The bank ultimately attracted a total of $345 million for its recapitalization.

Central Pacific also announced that its board has authorized an additional $75 million to its common stock repurchase program.

In connection with the stock repurchase program, Central Pacific will purchase approximately 3.2 million shares of its common stock in the offering at a price per share equal to the price per share being paid by the underwriter to the selling shareholders in the offering.

EV savings estimator offered

Hawaiian Electric Cos. has introduced an online electric vehicle bill savings estimator that can help residential customers who have or are considering an EV estimate how much money they can save by utilizing time-of-use EV charging rates offered by the three utilities.

The new EV Bill Savings Estimators and instructions are accessible at hawaiianelectric.com/EVSavingsEstimator, mauielectric.com/EVSavingsEstimator and hawaiielectriclight.com/EVSavingsEstimator.

There are estimator versions for a customer enrolled in the current TOU EV rate; a customer enrolled in the standard (non-TOU) residential rate, called Schedule R; or a customer enrolled in the standard (non-TOU) residential rate with a rooftop solar system under a Net Energy Metering agreement.

Sign-up for TOU rates for EV charging can be done at hawaiianelectric.com/GoEV.

On The Move

» The YWCA of Oahu is honoring four female leaders at its 38th Annual Leadership Luncheon from noon-1:30 p.m. May 27 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel Hawaii ballroom. The four honorees for 2015:

— Mary Moragne Cooke is co-founder of Manoa Heritage Center. She is also founding president of Malama Manoa and an emeritus trustee at Punahou School.

— Kathy Inouye is partner and chief operating officer for the Kobayashi Group. She has served on numerous nonprofit and professional boards, commissions and fundraising committees, and was appointed by two governors to serve on boards of various state agencies.

— Laura Smith has been president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of Hawaii since 1994. She also served on boards that include the Goodwill Industries International Board, the Hawaii Employers Council and Board of Governors and Punawai ‘o Pu’uhonua Advisory Board.

— Candy Suiso has been program director and educator, as well as co-founder, of Searider Productions at Waianae High School since 1993. The program is the largest digital media program in Hawaii and has won local, national and international awards for its work. Suiso also collaborated on a post-secondary program called Kauhale Youth Education and Entrepreneurship Initiative.

Ship Ahoy!

Today’s ship arrivals and departures: