Mortgage Rates Up Again

In what is starting to look like a trend, mortgage rates increased for the third week in a row, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending March 17.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.73 percent, up from last week when it averaged 3.68 percent and slight below last year’s 3.78 percent average. The 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.99 percent, higher than last week’s 2.96 percent but below last year’s 3.06 percent. And the five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.93 percent, up slight from last week’s 2.92 percent but below last year’s 2.97 percent.

"Treasury yields increased heading into this week's [Federal Reserve] meeting, partially in response to modestly higher inflation readings,” said Sean Becketti, chief economist at Freddie Mac, “Thirty-year mortgage rates kept pace, rising five basis points to 3.73 percent. Nonetheless, at the meeting the Fed confirmed what the market had already concluded and made no change to the Federal funds target. The Fed went further and acknowledged that economic signals have been mixed and that the pace of monetary tightening may be slower than had been assumed at the end of 2015."