Mortgage rates were up again this week on news the economy added an impressive 180,000 nonfarm jobs in March, Freddie Mac reported today in its weekly survey.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to an average 6.22 percent from 6.17 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported, and the 15-year fixed rate grew from 5.87 percent to 5.9 percent. Points, which are fees lenders charge for loan processing expressed as a percent of the loan, averaged 0.4 on the 30- and 15-year loans.
Adjustable-rate mortgages also became a little more expensive this week, as the five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid ARM grew to an average 5.93 percent from last week’s 5.92 percent and the one-year Treasury-indexed ARM gained from 5.44 percent to 5.47 percent. Points on these loans averaged 0.5 percent.
“Interest rates in general ticked up following the release of the March employment data, which showed stronger job growth than what the market expected,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement. “This brought interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) back up this week to match the first-quarter average.”
Nothaft said home loan refinancing is running strong, as a large share of borrowers “are doing so to avoid an adjustment to their monthly payment” before the initial period on their adjustable loan expires or to “extract equity through a cash-out refi.”
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 – 6.32 percent with 0.03 point
Los Angeles – 6.32 percent with 0.41 point
Chicago – 6.42 percent with 0.08 point
San Francisco – 6.25 percent with 0.5 point
Philadelphia – 6.32 percent with 0.28 point
Detroit – 6.37 percent with 0.01 point
Boston – 6.4 percent with 0.03 point
Houston – 6.28 percent with 0.44 point
Dallas – 6.19 percent with 0.47 point
Washington, D.C. – 6.23 percent with 0.51 point
