Mortgage rates rise again this week; housing market may be bottoming out
Dennis Norman
According to Freddie Macs weekly mortgage market survey mortgage rates increased slightly this week from the prior week. The survey shows 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaging 5.25% with 0.7% in fees and points, up from 5.20% the week before. Last year at this time, the 30 year rate averaged 6.52%.
Rates on 15 year fixed-rate mortgages held steady at 4.69%, 5/1 ARM’s held about the same at 4.75% and 1 year ARM’s rose slightly to 4.80%. This time last year these arms were 6.07% and 5.27% respectively.
“Bond yields rose slightly higher this week on market optimism that the economy may be stabilizing somewhat and mortgage rates followed those yields,” said Fronk Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.
“Other economic reports confirm that the housing market may indeed be bottoming out. New home sales rose for the third consecutive month in June to an annual pace of 384,000 homes, the most since November 2008 and the number of new houses on the market fell to the lowest amount since February 1999, according to the Department of Commerce. Sales of existing homes also showed a three-month gain to 4.89 million, the most since October, 2008, and the share of distressed homes fell to 31 percent compared to almost half at the beginning of the year, the National Association of Realtors reported.
|
|
|
|
|
 |