Posted on: Friday, January 2, 2004
30-year mortgage rates up slightly
By Jeannine Aversa
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages inched up this week, ending a three-week stretch in which these rates had moved down.
Even with the uptick, rates are still sufficiently low to keep the housing market healthy, economists said.
For the week ending today, the average rate on 30-year mortgages rose to 5.85 percent, up slightly from 5.81 percent last week, Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, reported in its nationwide survey.
When the rate on 30-year mortgages fell to 5.21 percent in the mid-June, it reached the lowest level in more than four decades. Since then, rates on these benchmark mortgages have bounced up and down.
For 15-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, rates rose to 5.15 percent this week, up from 5.13 percent the previous week.
Rates for one-year adjustable mortgages, however, averaged 3.72 percent, down slightly from 3.73 percent last week.
A year ago, rates on 30-year mortgages averaged 5.85 percent, 15-year mortgages were 5.24 percent and one-year adjustable mortgages stood at 4.06 percent.
The nationwide averages for mortgage rates do not include add-on fees known as points. Each type of loan carried an average fee of 0.7 point this week.
The housing market, powered by low mortgage rates, has helped to support the economy throughout 2003. Even though sales of previously owned homes slowed in November, private economists predict that home sales will set a record for all of 2003.
Separately, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America said refinancing accounted for 49.3 percent of all home-mortgage applications filed last week, down from 51.7 percent the previous week. The share of adjustable-rate mortgages, meanwhile, rose to 30.4 percent of all mortgage filings last week, up from 27.8 percent the previous week.
"The savvy home buyer or refinancer has the option of lowering monthly mortgage payments by choosing one of the many ARM products available today," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist.
