Mortgage rates increased for the third week straight amid the Federal Reserve’s announcement to not raise the federal funds rate, the latest Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed.
“Treasury yields increased heading into this week's FOMC meeting, partially in response to modestly higher inflation readings. 30-year mortgage rates kept pace, rising 5 basis points to 3.73%,” said Sean Becketti, chief economist with Freddie Mac.
“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," he added.
Click the chart to enlarge
(Source: Freddie Mac)
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.73% for the week ending March 17, 2016, up from last week’s 3.68%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM came in at 3.78%.
In addition, the 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.99%, up from last week when it averaged 2.96%. In 2015, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.06%.
The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.93%, up from 2.92% a week ago. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.97%.
