Freddie Mac finds little movement in mortgage rates

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — If you were planning to a buy a house or refinance a mortgage this week and you didn’t lock in your rate, don’t worry. Mortgage rates barely budged, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage bumped up to 4.87 percent with 0.7 point from last week’s 4.86 percent, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago, the rate sat at 5.21 percent a year ago.
Bankrate’s national mortgage survey found a little more movement, with the 30-year hitting 5.08 percent with 0.41 point, up from 5.01 percent a week ago.

Both Freddie Mac and Bankrate saw the March jobs report, released last week, as a major influence on rates.

"Mortgage rates were little changed after an encouraging employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said. “The economy added 216,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate fell for the fifth consecutive month to 8.8 percent marking the lowest rate in two years. Additionally, the private sector has gained 560,000 workers in the first quarter of this year, which represents the largest quarterly increase since the first quarter of 2006."

Bankrate said the jobs news overshadowed investor concerns about Libya, Japan and other points on the globe and migrated more toward stocks then comparatively safe treasury bonds, pushing interest rates higher. Mortgage rates tend to follow long-term government bonds.

Also from the surveys, Freddie Mac said the 15-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 4.10 percent with 0.7 point, up from 4.09 percent a week earlier. Bankrate had the 15-year at 4.27 percent with 0.43 point, up from 4.25 percent a week ago.

Bankrate’s  mortgage experts sees rates moving higher over the next week. Fifty-six percent of the Bankrate’s panelists predict an increase, with 38 percent see rates more or less unchanged. Six percent forecast a decline.