Mortgage Rates Reverse 11-Week Trend (01-26-2008)

After inching downward for 11 straight weeks, Mortgage rates have taken the turn, according to Freddie Mac’s (FRE: 0.65 -4.41%) Primary Mortgage Market Survey released Thursday. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.12 percent with an average 0.7 point this week, significantly up from last week’s 4.96 percent average, yet still below the year-ago average of 5.48 percent.

It’s worth noting if a lender’s workload — in this case, possibly caused by the surge in refis — exceeds their capacity to process loan applications, often times they will raise rates to slow the volume of applications. Regardless the reason, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage average also climbed this week, reaching 4.80 percent, compared to 4.65 percent last week. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were no exception, rising to 4.92 percent from last week’s 4.89 percent average. Five-year Treasury-indexed ARMs, on the other hand, continued to ease, averaging 5.24 percent compared to last week’s 5.25 percent.

 

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