Mortgage rates on the rise
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30-year fixed rate at 2-month high
Mortgage rates increased week-over-week, reaching levels not seen in about two months, Freddie Mac said in its weekly mortgage report.
According to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending January 10, 2013, 30-year fixed mortgages rose to an average of 3.40 percent, a jump from 3.34 percent the previous week. The 3.40 percent mark is the highest average rate for 30-year fixed mortgages in eight weeks.
“Fixed mortgage rates increased slightly following a positive employment report for December,” Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac, said in a statement. “The economy added 155,000 jobs, above the consensus market forecast, and November’s job growth was revised upward by another 24,000 workers.
“This helped keep the unemployment rate steady at 7.8 percent, the lowest since December 2008. For all of 2012, 1.86 million jobs were created and represented the largest annual gain since 2006.”
Despite the upward trend in 30-year fixed rates in recent weeks, average rates remain fairly close to all-time record lows. The lowest average 30-year fixed rate recorded by Freddie Mac was 3.31 percent back on November 21, 2012.
See also: 2012 Mortgage Rate Archive
Also during the week ending January 10, 2013, 15-year fixed mortgages increased to an average of 2.66 percent from 2.64 percent the previous week. Despite the weekly increase, 15-year fixed rates remain far below this time last year, when 15-year fixed mortgages averaged 3.16 percent.
In addition, 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) dropped week-over-week to an average rate of 2.67 percent from 2.71 percent, while 1-year ARMs rose to 2.60 percent from 2.57 percent.
One year ago at this time, 5-year ARMs averaged 2.82 percent and 1-year ARMs averaged 2.76 percent.
Posted in: Mortgage, Mortgage Rates, Refinance, Refinance Rates
Mortgage News: This article was published on 1-14-2013 at 9:16 am.
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