Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of lenders started the year at 3.87 percent and sank to 3.59 percent in early February. This week’s report, released Thursday, showed the 30-year fixed-rate loan at or above 4 percent for the fourth survey in a row, and up from 4.02 percent last week.
Lenders offered 15-year fixed-rate loans to solid borrowers at an average of 3.24 percent, up from 3.21 percent a week ago, Freddie Mac said. The starting rates for adjustable loans also rose.
The slowly rising rates come as the Federal Reserve, having ended a bond-buying program designed to keep long-term interest rates low, is now pondering when to start raising short-term rates.
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A lobbying group for the mortgage industry reported that home-loan applications fell 4.7 percent last week as the cost of borrowing rose, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Sean Becketti, noted as the rate report was released.
“Other measures, however, confirmed continued strength in housing,” Becketti said. “Pending home sales rose 0.9 percent, exceeding expectations, and the Case-Shiller house price index recorded another solid increase.”
Freddie Mac asks lenders each Monday through Wednesday about the terms they are offering to solid borrowers seeking mortgages of up to $417,000.
The loans must conform to guidelines set by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the nation’s other major buyer and guarantor of home loans.
The borrowers would have paid an average of 0.6 percent of the loan balance in upfront lender fees and discount points to obtain the 30-year fixed-rate loan in the latest survey.
The costs of such services as appraisals and title insurance are not included.