3.86: Strong Economy Drives Mortgage Rates Up

• March 12th 2015

by Lark Turner

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Mortgage rates rose this week as a result of a strong economic report, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.86 percent with an average 0.6 point this week, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 3.75 last week, but down from 4.37 percent a year ago. Rates had fallen slightly last week after slowly gaining over a three-week period.

In a news release, Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist, said a jobs report caused the rate hike.

“The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.86 percent for this week following a strong labor market report, essentially bring rates back to where they were at the start of the year,” Kiefer said. “The U.S. economy created 295,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate dipped to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent in January, both outperforming market expectations.”

UrbanTurf is following the path of the rates in this chart:

The UrbanTurf Mortgage Rate Disclaimer: The rates reported by Freddie Mac for 30-year mortgages are usually the best rates that the most qualified borrowers can get, so borrowers or those considering refinancing should not necessarily read this news and think that they can go out and get a loan with the quoted interest rate.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/3.86_strong_economy_drives_rates_up/9635.