Interest rates grew on long-term U.S. mortgage rates during the latest week according to mortgage company Freddie Mac Thursday, representing the first increase in over a month.
“Mortgage rates rose slightly this week but still remained historically low,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have averaged below 5.0 percent for the last four weeks, which should keep homeowner affordability at record levels.
“Given these low rates, housing demand has strengthened. Conventional mortgage applications both for refinancing and for home purchases have increased over the past five consecutive weeks ending April 3. Since the end of February, applications for home purchases were up about 22 percent and nearly 129 percent for refinancing, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.”
The average national rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 4.87 percent, excluding fees, during the week ended April 9, 2009, jumping up from 4.78 percent the previous week. One year earlier the average rate was more than a full percentage point higher at 5.88 percent.
Interest rates on 15-year fixed rate loans averaged 4.54 percent, inching up from 4.52 percent the week before. Last year at this year, the average rate on a 15-year FRM was 5.42 percent.
One-year Treasury indexed adjustable rate mortgages carried an average rate of 4.83 percent, an increase from 4.75 percent one week earlier. The current average rate is at its lowest since the week of September 29, 2005, a three and a half year low. During this week of 2008, the average rate was 5.18 percent.
While some analysts and legislators had been talking about mortgage interest rates moving down close to the 4 percent range this year, economists are now starting to believe that kind of drop is unlikely anytime soon, as rates have not yet fallen more than a quarter percentage point below five percent to date.
