Mortgage Rate Steady

After the increase in short term interest rate to 5.25% last week by the Federal Reserve, the mortgage rate remained at a steady level over the past week ending today.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.79% in the week that ended today -- slightly up from its 6.78% average last week. At this time last year, the loan averaged 5.62%. The 30-year mortgage has not been higher since the week ending May 24, 2002, when it averaged 6.81%. The 15-year fixed rate averaged at 6.44% this week, again only a 0.01% increase from last week's 6.43%. At this time last year this rate was 5.20%. This rate hasn't been higher since April 12, 2002, when it averaged 6.49%.

Rate for 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) was steady at last week's average of 6.39%. This rate averaged 5.19% a year ago. The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs also moved up by only 0.01% this week to 5.83%, from 5.82% last week. At this time in 2005, the ARM averaged 4.33%.