Mortgage rates were up ever so slightly in the last week, but they still sit comfortably below 4% and are still hovering around the low for the year, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The 30-year, fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.83% for the week ending Dec. 24, up three basis points from last week’s 3.80%. One year ago, the 30-year FRM interest rate was 4.48%.
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s vice president and chief economist, said that the minor increase was due to mixed housing and economic news.
“Mortgage rates were up slightly, following a week of mixed economic releases,” Nothaft said. “Existing home sales were down 6.1% in November to annual rate of 4.93 million units, below economists' expectations. New home sales fell 1.6% last month to an annual rate of 438,000, also below expectations. Meanwhile, the third quarter real GDP was revised sharply higher to 5% according to the final estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis."
Additionally, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.10% in the week that ended Dec. 24, up from last week when it averaged 3.09%. Last year at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.52%.
The 5-year, Treasury-indexed ARM rose to 3.01%, up from 2.95% last week. Last year, the 5-year ARM averaged 3%.
The 1-year, Treasury-indexed ARM decreased to 2.39%, up by one basis point over last week’s total of 2.38%. A year ago, it sat at 2.56%.
Bankrate posted similar results in its national survey of large lenders. According to Bankrate, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.96% from 3.94% last week.
Bankrate’s data also showed that the 15-year, and ARM rates rose as well. According to Bankrate, the 15-year FRN rose to 3.25% from 3.21%. The 5/1 ARM rate rose from 3.21% to 3.28% as well.
