Mortgage Rates increased slightly this week, with the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rising to 3.33%, up from 3.31% last week but down from 4.20% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
“Mortgage rates have stabilized over the last few weeks as the market searches for direction in the fog of economic data,” says Sam Khater, chief economist for Freddie Mac, in a statement. “While financial markets initially rallied on the news of Federal Reserve support and are improving due to the Senate’s passage of a new small business stimulus, we continue to see a deep economic contraction amidst uncertainty about the recovery formation.”
For the week ended April 23, the average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 2.86%, up from 2.80% the previous week but down from 3.64% a year ago.
The average rate for a five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) was 3.28%, up from 3.34% a week ago but down from 3.77% a year ago.