According to HousingWire, Freddie Mac says the 30-year, fixed rate mortgage (FRM) rose from 3.92 percent last week to 4.08 percent this week, the first time it has averaged above four percent since last October. One year ago it was 4.81 percent. The 15-year FRM edged up from 3.16 percent last week to 3.30 percent, but still below the 4.04 percent from a year ago. Five-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) rose from 2.83 percent to 2.96 percent this week, still below the 3.62 percent of a year ago. Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft says, “Bond yields rose over the past two weeks in part due to an improving assessment of the state of the economy by the Federal Reserve better than expected results of commercial bank stress tests and the likelihood of a second bailout for Greece.” Meanwhile, Nothaft says, homeowners have lowered their financial obligations ratio (debt payments as a share of disposable income) to the lowest level since Q2 1994.
