30-Year FRM Rate Rises Back Above 5%

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped back above 5% to 5.12% during the week ended Jan. 22, according to Freddie Mac. The average 30-year FRM rate had fallen below 5% the week before when it was 4.96% but remains below the 5.48% average rate seen during the same week the year previous. The week-to-week gain in the rate reversed 11 consecutive weeks of declines. "Fixed-rate mortgages followed bond yields and edged up this holiday week," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "However, over the first three weeks of 2009, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 0.25 percentage points below their monthly average for December 2008. As a result the number of mortgage applications for refinancing was roughly about 86% of all conventional loans over the same time period." The average 15-year FRM rate, at 4.80%, also was up from the previous week when it was 4.65% but represented a decline from 4.95% the year previous. The average rate for a five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage was 5.24%, down from 5.25% the previous week and the lowest it has been since Sept. 8, 2005, when it also was 5.24%. The average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs was 4.92%, up from the previous week's 4.89% and down from 4.99% the year previous. Average points were as follows: 0.7 for 30- and 15-year FRMs and for one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs and 0.6 for five-year Treasury-indexed hybrids.