3.85: Mortgage Rates Keep Climbing

• May 14, 2015

by Lark Turner

Mortgage rates continued to rise this week on strong economic news.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage moved to 3.85 percent with an average 0.6 point, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 3.80 last week and down from 4.20 percent a year ago.

In a news release, Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist, said strong employment figures and other economic news influenced the uptick in rates.

“Mortgage rates rose for the third consecutive week as 10-year Treasury yields continued to climb. The labor market continues to improve with U.S. economy adding 223,000 jobs in April, a solid rebound from merely 85,000 job gains in March. Also, the unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent in April as the participation rate ticked up to 62.8 percent and jobless claims were far less than expected.”

UrbanTurf is following the path of the rates in this chart:

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.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/3.85_mortgage_rates_keep_climbing/9887