Mortgage rates remained stagnant heading into the final days of the year, according to the the latest Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.48% for the week ending Dec. 26, increasing from last week’s average of 4.47% and 3.35% a year ago this time.
Comparatively, the 15-year, FRM averaged 3.52%, up from 3.51% last week and 2.65% last year.
The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid, adjustable-rate mortgage hit 3% for this week, slightly up from 2.96% a week ago and 2.70% a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.56% this week, down from 2.57% last week and the same ranking as a year ago.
"Mortgage rates were little changed this week following mixed economic reports. Real GDP was revised upwards to 4.1% growth in the third quarter of this year,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist with Freddie Mac.
"However, existing-home sales dropped 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4,900,000 in November. Also, new home sales fell 2.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 464,000," he added.
Similarly, according to Bankrate’s latest mortgage rate report, all fixed-rate and adjustable rates increased.
The 30-year, FRM rose to 4.63% from 4.58%, while the 15-year, FRM escalated to 3.70%, up from 3.63% last week.
In addition, the 5/1 ARM jumped to 3.43% from 3.33% a week prior.
"Mortgage rates and long-term government bonds began to climb following the Federal Reserve's much-awaited announcement about tapering the pace of their bond purchases beginning in January. Mortgage rates are closely related to yields on long-term government bonds. The better tone of recent economic data, coupled with the fact that the Fed will be buying fewer bonds, put upward pressure on yields," Bankrate said.
"If the Fed does as expected, and continues to ratchet back their bond purchases throughout 2014, a steady grind toward higher mortgage rates is likely to result," the company added.
