Mortgage Rate Up After 6 Weeks

After a 6-weeks long downslide, the mortgage rate moved up this week for a change. The rate is going to see fluctuations like this within a range of 61/2% and 7% throughout the rest of the year and in September in particular before Fed meets on 20th and traders get some indication of what the Fed thinks about American economy and inflation.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.47% in the week that ended today -- up from its 6.44% average last week. At this time last year, the loan averaged 5.71%. The 15-year fixed rate averaged at 6.16% this week, again a slight rise from last week's 6.14%. At this time last year this rate was 5.30%.

Rate for 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) averaged at 6.14% increasing from last week's 6.11%. This rate averaged 5.30% a year ago. The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs have an average rate of 5.63%, up from last week's rate of 5.59%. At this time in 2005, the 1-year ARM averaged only 4.45%.