8 April  2011

The Wall Street Journal

Mortgage rates mostly edged higher in the latest week, with the average on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rising slightly to 4.87%, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey.

Mortgage rates generally track U.S. bond yields, which move inversely to Treasury prices. Rates have climbed this year after slumping most of last year when prices rallies on economic uncertainty.

Freddie Chief Economist Frank Nothaft noted that rates were little changed after what he called “an encouraging employment report” from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.87% in the week ended Thursday, up from 4.86% the prior week but down from 5.21% a year earlier. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages were 4.1%, up from 4.09% the previous week but down from 4.52% a year earlier.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.72%, up from the prior week’s 3.7% but down from 4.25% a year earlier. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 3.22%, down from 3.26% and 4.14%, respectively.

To obtain the rates, the five-year ARMs required payment of an average 0.6 point and the others required an average 0.7 point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.