Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

3.98: Mortgage Rates Jump Back Up; New Home Sales Fall

  • January 26th 2012

by Shilpi Paul

3.98: Mortgage Rates Jump Back Up; New Home Sales Fall: Figure 1

After three straight weeks of record setting lows, mortgage rates jumped back up today.

This morning, Freddie Mac reported 3.98 percent with an average 0.7 point as the average on a 30-year fixed mortgage. Rates hit a record low of 3.88 percent last week and have been below 4 percent now for eight consecutive weeks.

From Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft:

Fixed mortgage rates ticked up this week as the housing market ended 2011 on a high note. New construction of one-family homes rose 4.4 percent in December to an annualized rate of 470,000, the most since April 2010. Existing home sales increased 5.0 percent at the end of the year to 4.61 million houses, the largest amount since May 2010.

At the same time that the rates were announced, not-so-good news came from the Commerce Department, which reported that new home sales fell unexpectedly in December by 2.2 percent. Sales were at an annual rate of 307,000, below the 325,000 number that economists had expected.

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

3.98: Mortgage Rates Jump Back Up; New Home Sales Fall: Figure 2

See other articles related to: mortgage rates

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/3.98_mortgage_rates_jump_back_up/5000.

DC Real Estate Guides

Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market

We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!

First-Timer Primers

Intro guides for first-time home buyers

Red Flags Revealed During a Home Inspection Top 5 Tax Breaks For Homeowners Tax Relief for DC Homeowners
Condo Fee Tutorial What is a Rent Back? 10 Ways To Tell If a Home Renovation is Well Done
Obtaining a Basic Business License For Your Rental What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? The Splitting the Rent Formula
How Much Cash Do You Need to Buy a House? Is This Condo Building Financially Healthy? Interest Rates and Mortgage Points
The Scoop on Mortgage Insurance

Unique Spaces

Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro

The Most Intriguing Loft in DC The R Street Firehouse DC’s One-Room House
Dupont Circle’s Old Frat House To Become Alley Home Best Transition From a Garage To a Home The Roundhouse
Tilden Gardens Restaurant-Turned-Home Hits Market Next Week Logan Circle’s Most Intriguing Garage Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Green in Kensington
Sears Bungalow Gets a Modern Makeover Old Town General Store Becomes Three-Level Home Making the Most of a Skinny House
A Studio 27 Renovation on Capitol Hill Once a Carriage House, Now a Home The Bank that Became a Home
From Pie to Hooch to Heroin to Home The Live-Aboards of Gangplank Marina A Treehouse with Rock Creek Park As A Backyard
Modern Tranquility in Sperryville Saddle Up For Stable Living Throwing a Curve at 550 Square Feet
A Modern Hilltop Retreat Tilden Street Restaurant Becomes Spacious Home Focus on Design: A Vastu Unit at 22 West
The DC Area’s First Net Zero Home A Yankee Goes Green DC’s First Carbon Neutral Home
Eco-Friendly Alley House Off H Street The Gym, The Stables and The Firehouse