Most mortgage rates inched up ever so slightly for the period ending July 21, according to a new Freddie Mac market survey. At press time that upward pressure continued with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yielding 2.99%.
“There’s supposed to be a possible deal over in Europe with the Greek situation, Morgan Stanley beat earnings which is helping stocks, and we had positive Philly Fed news that came in this morning better than expected,” said Patrick Hennessey, senior financial analyst at the Mortgage Market Guide. “So we have a couple of things that are pressuring rates a bit higher.”
Rates on 30- and 15-year fixed rate mortgages increased one basis point each from the previous week to 4.52% and 3.66%, respectively. Both loan types also averaged 0.7 of a point during the period.
For the week leading up to Thursday, economic indicators were giving out mixed signals, said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. As a result, average changes in rates (in either direction) were slight, although more were up than down, Nothaft noted.
The average rate for a one-year Treasury-indexed ARM jumped two basis points to 2.97% with 0.5 points offered.
The rate on one-year Treasury hybrid ARMs dropped two basis points to 3.27% with 0.5 points.
All rates tracked by Freddie are lower than they were a year ago but in the case of the 30-year FRM the current rate is only four basis points lower.
