Strong Economic News Pushes Rates Higher

POSITIVE ECONOMIC NEWS PUSHES MORTGAGE RATES HIGHER: 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgages Highest In Almost Four Months.

Nationwide, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.28%, for the week ending February 8, down from last week's 6.34%.  Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.24%.  The average for the 15-year FRM this week is 6.02%, down from last week’s 6.06%.  One-year “T”ARMs were up at 5.59% and five-year “T”ARMs averaged 5.99% down from last week’s 6.04%.

"News of moderate employment gains in January led to a halt in the recent upward trend of interest rate movements," said Frank Nothaft , Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "The 111,000 jobs added last month were fewer than had been anticipated, while the unemployment rate edged up unexpectedly.  Throughout the year we expect rates on 30-year mortgages to average between 6.3 and 6.5 percent. The flat or increasing rate environment will likely cause the refinance share to contract gradually.  In addition, the dollar volume of home equity cashed-out will also retreat from the record level of $314 billion set in 2006 to around $230 billion this year."

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