4.37: Mortgage Rates Continue Slow Climb

• February 27, 2014

by Lark Turner

Mortgage rates continued to creep up this week, with Freddie Mac reporting a 4.37 percent with an average 0.7 point on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

That’s another slow jump from last week, when rates averaged 4.33 percent; a year ago, long-term rates averaged 3.51 percent.

Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, said the slow rise was attributable to rosy figures about new home sales.

“Mortgage rates edged up with new home sales exceeding expectations and rising to a seasonally adjusted pace of 468,000 units in January, the strongest annual rate since July 2008,” he said. “The 9.6 percent increase in new home sales for January followed an upward revision of 13,000 units in December. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite house price index rose 13.4 percent over the 12-months ending in December 2013.”

UrbanTurf reported on the Case-Schiller release earlier this week. The index report noted the annual growth but also pointed to signs of a slowdown in the market.

Here is a look at the path of interest rates over the past several years:

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 http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/4.37_mortgage_rates_continue_slow_climb/8177