Mortgage Commentary

-- 10-year Treasury yield, a major reference for the mortgage market,
reached a 6-month high of 4.5% this week.

-- The average rate paid on a 30-year loan this week was 6.03%, up
from last week's 5.98%, and the highest since hitting 6.04% in the week
ended March 31. The rate has been up for five weeks without pause. Last
year at this time, the popular 30-year fixed rate averaged 5.74%.

-- The average paid for a 15-year loan this week was 5.62%, up from
last week's 5.54% and last year's 5.14%.

-- The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage, or
ARM, averaged 5.57% this week, up from last week when it averaged 5.48%.

-- One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.85%. That compares to
4.77% a week ago and rates near 4% a year ago.

-- To achieve these mortgage rates this week, the 30-year, 15-year and
one-year loans required the payment of an average 0.6 point; the 5-year
hybrid ARM required 0.7 point [A point equals 1% of the loan amount,
charged as prepaid interest].

[source: Freddie Mac's weekly report]