Mortgage rates moved higher this week after the U.S. Department of Labor revised its August-September employment numbers, reflecting stronger job growth than previously thought, Freddie Mac reported today in its weekly survey.
According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage edged up to an average 6.33 percent this week, up from 6.31 percent a week ago. The 15-year fixed rate also gained during the period, rising from 6.02 percent to 6.04 percent.
Points, which are fees charged by lenders for loan processing expressed as a percent of the loan, averaged 0.6 on the 30- and 15-year loans.
“Mortgage rates rose earlier in the week on news of large upward revisions over the past three months in employment figures, but began to drift lower as the market looked more deeply into the numbers,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “For instance, in October the construction industry lost jobs, primarily due to the slowing housing market.
“That same slowing housing market shaved a little over 1 percentage point from the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter. However, we expect that the GDP growth rate will increase in the final quarter of this year, although that increase is expected to come from areas other than housing.”
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 6.08 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 6.05 percent. The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 5.55 percent, with an average 0.8 point, up from 5.53 percent a week earlier.
The following is a sampling of Bankrate.com’s average 30-year-mortgage interest rates this week in some U.S. metropolitan areas:
New York – 6.27 percent with 0.08 point
Los Angeles – 6.42 percent with 0.39 point
Chicago – 6.44 percent with 0.01 point
San Francisco – 6.31 percent with 0.41 point
Philadelphia – 6.27 percent with 0.31 point
Detroit – 6.39 percent with no points
Boston – 6.32 percent with 0.11 point
Houston – 6.28 percent with 0.42 point
Dallas – 6.29 percent with 0.37 point
Washington, D.C. – 6.21 percent with 0.46 point
