Fixed-mortgage rates rose from the previous week after remaining mostly unchanged, Freddie Mac said in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for the week ending March 14 rose to 3.63%, up from 3.52% a week earlier, but down from 3.92% last year.
The 15-year, FRM averaged 2.79%, up from 2.76% last week, but down from 3.16% a year ago.
Meanwhile, the 5-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.61% this week, down from 2.63% last week and down from 2.83% a year earlier.
Additionally, the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.64%, up from 2.63% a week ago and a drop from 2.79% last year.
“Fixed mortgage rates rose this week on stronger signs of jobs growth and consumer spending. The economy added 236,000 new workers in February which helped push down the unemployment rate to 7.7%,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac.
He added, “This helped offset the effects of the payroll tax holiday expiration and led to a 1.1% increase in retail sales, which was well above the market consensus forecast.”
Bankrate data also shows mortgage rates up from last week.
Bankrate’s 30-year, FRM rose to 3.85%, up from 3.73% a week earlier.
In addition, the 15-year, FRM also increased to 3.03%, up from 2.96% from last week and the 5/1 ARM also rose to 2.82%.
