Mortgage Rates Rise But Larger Increase Possible: Freddie Mac

While mortgage rates moved somewhat higher in the period before the election, after the results were known, the yield on the 10-year Treasury broke above 2%, according to Freddie Mac.

Because the 10-year Treasury yield is an indicator for pricing long-term mortgage loans, if it continues to rise, there will be a larger increase in rates over the next week.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.57% for the week ending Nov. 10, up from last week when it averaged 3.54%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.98%.

"This week's survey reflects pre-election market conditions. As a result, the 30-year mortgage rate increased only 3 basis points higher than last week's level. On Wednesday, the 10-year Treasury yield closed above 2%, about 25 basis points higher than its pre-election value and its highest yield since January," said Sean Becketti, chief economist at Freddie Mac.

On Nov. 4, the 10-year yield had a low point of 1.77%. Over the next few days it rose to a high of 1.88% on Nov. 9. As the results came in, the yield dropped to 1.73% at one point overnight before immediately turning around.

"At this point, it is too soon to tell whether Treasuries will hold this new level or if the mortgage rate will increase as much over the coming week," Becketti added.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.88%, up from last week when it averaged 2.84%. A year ago at this time, the 15-year averaged 3.2%.

The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.88%, up from last week when it averaged 2.87%, while a year ago it averaged 3.03%.

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