Rates for home loans rose to the highest in more than a year, raising the prospect of a fresh headwind for housing that mortgage professionals think the market can handle — for now.
The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.32% during the week ending Feb. 8, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That was up 10 basis points from the prior week and leaves rates more than 30 basis points higher than where they started the year. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.77%, up from 3.68%. The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.57%, up four basis points.
Those rates don’t include fees associated with obtaining mortgage loans.
Mortgage rates track alongside yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.00% -- an investment that’s suddenly become a lot less desirable as the federal government plans massive deficit spending and inflation picks up.
Read: Bond market braces for $ 1 trillion tsunami of Treasurys this year
Bond yields rise as prices decline, and vice versa.
For now, sturdy demand for housing is buoying mortgage applications. It may even be pulling some Americans to apply now before rates jump even higher.
“The typical consumer may not have a very in-depth understanding of the interaction between the Fed Funds rate and the long end, but the buzz is, rates are going up,” said Steven Schnall, CEO of Astoria, New York-based Quontic Bank.
For now, demand for purchase mortgages has been ”very stable” at Quontic even as rates have churned higher, Schnall said. He won’t start to worry until higher rates start to nudge would-be homeowners over their eligibility ceiling, he said.