It was bound to happen eventually, right? It was practically impossible to have mortgage rates set new record lows week after week, so I suppose today shouldn’t come as much of a shock to many.
The ever-optimistic side of me was hoping to see mortgage rates tick even lower than the unbelievable rates that we have been enjoying week in and week out. However, the realistic side of me knew that this day was going to come eventually.
Freddie Mac’s Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey was released at 10 o’clock this morning, as it is every single Thursday, meaning my weekly post breaking down the numbers would be quick to follow. The numbers came in this week with mixed results, but mortgage rates are still incredibly low.
30-year fixed mortgage rates increased to 3.98 percent with 0.7 points this week, coming off of last week’s record-setting 3.88 percent with 0.8 points. This rate extends the streak of below 4.00 percent rates to eight weeks. How much longer can we keep this streak alive? Last year at this time, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.80 percent, so we’re still significantly lower than where we were 12 months ago.
15-year fixed mortgage rates increased to 3.24 percent with 0.8 points from last week’s 3.17 percent with 0.8 points. It is a pretty significant increase, but 15-year fixed mortgage rates are still pretty low, considering that last year at this time, these rates averaged 4.09 percent.
The ARMs came in with mixed results as well. 5/1-year ARMs increased slightly from last week’s 2.82 percent with 0.7 points to 2.85 percent with 0.7 points. 1-year ARMs stood smack dab where they were last week at 2.74 percent with 0.6 points.
Last year at this time, 5/1-year ARMs and 1-year ARMs averaged 3.70 percent and 3.26 percent respectively.
Our good friend Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac, and usually a man of many words, must not have had his coffee this morning because he was uncharacteristically succinct with his analysis this week, but he was giddy about the current state of the housing market.
Frank explained, “Fixed mortgage rates ticked up this week as the housing market ended 2011 on a high note. New construction of one-family homes rose 4.4 percent in December to an annualized rate of 470,000, the most since April 2010. Existing home sales increased 5.0 percent at the end of the year to 4.61 million houses, the largest since may 2010. Furthermore, pending home sales in November and December averaged the highest reading since the March and April 2010 period.”
Does this week’s rate increase mean the beginning of a trend for mortgage rates? I unfortunately can’t answer that question. Now does seem like a good time, though, to give us a call to refinance before rates start trending north.
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