Mortgage Rates Gain, Marks 8-Month High

(RTTNews) - Mortgage rates, or interest rates on home loans, gained from last week reaching the highest level since last May, according to mortgage provider Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB).

Releasing the results of its primary mortgage market survey, Freddie Mac said that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage or FRM averaged 3.22 percent for the week ending January 06, 2021, up from 3.11 percent last week. A year ago at this time, the average rate was 2.65 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.43 percent, up from 2.33 percent last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.16 percent.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage or ARM averaged 2.41 percent, unchanged from last week. It was 2.75 percent a year ago.

"Mortgage rates increased during the first week of 2022 to the highest level since May 2020 and are more than half a percent higher than January 2021," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's Chief Economist. "With higher inflation, promising economic growth and a tight labor market, we expect rates will continue to rise. The impact of higher rates on purchase demand remains modest so far given the current first-time homebuyer growth."