Mortgage Rates Tip Upwards

McLEAN, Va. - (07/30/04) – Long-term mortgage rates movedup this week, after declining for three weeks in a row, accordingto Freddie Mac. The average for the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rateloan rose to 6.08% this week, from 5.98% last week; while theaverage for the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage climbed to 5.49%, from5.39% last week. Long-term mortgage have been little affected bythe hike in short-term rates engineered by the Federal Reservethree weeks ago. But ARM rates, closer tied to the Fed’sovernight target, have continued to rise since then, with theaverage for one-year ARMs climbing below 4% to 4.17% this week,according to Freddie. "Mortgage rates rose a little this week inresponse to expectations that the Federal Reserve Board is willingto move more aggressively if inflation should become an issue,"said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie.