30-Year Mortgage Rates Near Nine-Month High

U.S. 30-year mortgage rates continued their ascent this week, reaching their highest level since September 2007, according to a survey released on Thursday by home funding company Freddie Mac.

AP

U.S. 30-year mortgage rates rose to an average of 6.42 percent from 6.32 percent last week, and 15-year mortgages rose to an average of 6.02 percent from 5.93 percent.

One-year adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs, jumped to an average of 5.19 percent from 5.09 percent.

Freddie Mac said the "5/1" ARM, set at a fixed rate for five years and adjustable each following year, averaged 5.89 percent, up from 5.70 percent a week earlier.

A year ago, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.69 percent, 15-year mortgages 6.37 percent and the one-year ARM 5.66 percent. The 5/1 ARM averaged 6.31 percent.

"Fixed-rate mortgage rates continued to climb this week to the highest point in nearly nine months following the release of May's consumer and producer price indexes, both of which showed stronger levels of inflation," Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement.

Lenders charged an average of 0.7 percent in fees and points on 30-year mortgages, unchanged from last week.

Fees and points on the one-year ARM were also unchanged from the previous week at an average of 0.6 percent.

Charges on the 5/1 ARM fell to an average of 0.6 percent from 0.7 percent the prior week, compared to charges on 15-year mortgages which rose to an average of 0.7 percent from 0.6 percent.

Freddie Mac is a mortgage finance company chartered by Congress that buys mortgages from lenders and packages them into securities to sell to investors or to hold in its own portfolio.

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