3.66: Mortgage Rates Continue to Climb

• August 23rd 2012

by Shilpi Paul

Mortgage rates continued their climb upward this week.

This morning, Freddie Mac reported 3.66 percent with an average 0.7 point as the average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Rates have now been rising for four weeks in a row after hitting an all-time low of 3.49 percent last month.

From Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft:

Fixed mortgage rates inched upward this week along with other long-term yields. The Census Bureau reported that residential building permits were up in July, although builders slowed the pace of construction starts on one-family homes in July to the least since March while apartment and condominium building picked up to the most since April. Existing home sales rose in July from June’s eight-month low and the median sales price jumped 9.4 percent from a year earlier, representing the largest 12-month gain since January 2006.

The UrbanTurf Mortgage Rate Disclaimer: The rates reported by Freddie Mac for 30-year mortgages are usually the best rates that the most qualified borrowers can get, so borrowers or those considering refinancing should not necessarily read this news and think that they can go out and get a loan with the quoted interest rate.

Here’s a look at the path of rates since January 2010:

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/3.66_rates_continue_to_climb/5945.