Mortgage rates increased just slightly this week, but they could be on the verge of further increases, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
“30-year fixed mortgage rates have been bouncing around in a narrow 10 basis points range since October,” said Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac deputy chief economist. “The U.S. average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased one basis point to 3.94% in this week’s survey.”
“The majority of our survey was completed prior to the surge in long-term interest rates that followed the passage of the tax bill,” Kiefer said. “If those rate increases stick, we’ll likely see higher mortgage rates in next week’s survey.”
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(Source: Freddie Mac)
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.94% for the week ending December 21, 2017. This is up from last week’s 3.93% but down from 4.3% last year.
The 15-year FRM also increased slightly, rising from last week’s 3.36% to 3.38% this week. However, this is also down from last year’s 3.52%.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage increased to 3.39%, up from 3.36% last week and from 3.32% last year.
“But even with yesterday’s increase, the 10-year Treasury yield is down from a year ago, and 30-year fixed mortgage rates are 36 basis points below the level we saw in our survey last year at this time,” Kiefer said. “Mortgage rates are low.”
