Mortgage Rates Skyrocket

Momentum in the housing market may have been killed by the steep mortgage rate increase in recent weeks. The sudden jump could keep first-time home buyers sidelined since the .4 percent increase can mean a significant jump in monthly mortgage payments. For more on the mortgage rate increase see the following post by Kelly Curran from HousingWire.

For the second consecutive week, mortgage rates rose, driven by an increase in bond yields, according to Freddie Mac’s (FRE: 0.76 0.00%) Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to an average 5.29% with an average 0.7 point in the week ending June 4, marking the highest rate recorded since the week ending December 11, 2008.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.79%, up from last week’s 4.53% average, but well below the 5.65% average a year ago at this time.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs climbed from 4.69% last week to 4.85% this week, while Five-year ARMs also jumped, from 4.82% to 4.85%.

“Rates are substantially higher than they were a couple weeks ago, when many would-be borrowers were floating instead of locking,” said Bankrate.com’s Holden Lewis. “They were gambling that mortgage rates would decline further or stay the same. They Lost.”

Bankrate.com conducts its own rates survey each week. This week, Bankrate found benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 20 basis points to 5.65%, while the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 20 basis points to 5.06%.

This article has been reposted from HousingWire. View the article on HousingWire's mortgage finance news website here.