Published: March 11, 2005
According to Freddie Mac's Amy Cutts "Last Friday's employment report reinforced the perception that the economy is on sure footing, leading bond markets to push interest rates higher again this week."
30-year fixed-rate mortgages,as announcedby Freddie Mac, averaged 5.85 % for the week ending today, a rise of .04%. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averages were 5.38 %, up .05% from last week . Points on both the 30- and 15-year averaged 0.6.
Five-Year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.22 percent this week, with an average 0.6 points, up from 5.17 last week.
One-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.24 percent this week, with an average 0.7 points, up from last week when they averaged 4.14 percent.
Freddie Mac's chief economist also said: "Although inflation remains tame, the recent spike in oil prices does put inflationary pressures on the economy and was an additional factor causing higher interest rates.
Even with rising mortgage rates over the last four weeks, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates remain an historical bargain. To date, contract rates for these mortgages have been below 6 percent for 31 weeks in a row, and we don't expect these rates will rise very much above 6 1/4 percent by year-end."
Nationwide home prices also rose 10.7 percent for the fourth quarter of 2004 from the same quarter in 2003, according to Freddie Mac's Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index.This growth was accelerated by low mortgage rates along with an expanding economy. Gains in family income and a stronger labor market contributed to a record level of single-family construction and home sales, along with an exceptional rate of home-value appreciation.
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