Mortgage Rates Up For The First Time In Five Weeks

September 16, 2005

Financial Markets Waiting On Results of Upcoming Fed Meeting

McLean, VA – The results of Freddie Mac's (NYSE:FRE) Primary Mortgage Market SurveySM (PMMSSM) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.74 percent, with an average 0.6 point, for the week ending September 15, 2005, up from last week when it averaged 5.71 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.75 percent.

The average for the 15-year FRM this week is 5.32 percent, with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.30 percent. A year ago, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.13 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 5.26 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.24 percent. There is no annual historical information for last year since Freddie Mac only began tracking this mortgage rate at the start of this year.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.46 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up slightly from last week when it averaged 4.45 percent. At this time last year, the one-year ARM averaged 4.03 percent.

"Mortgage rates were relatively unchanged this week as the markets wait for the results of the upcoming Federal Reserve policy committee meeting," said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac. "Core Consumer Price Index (CPI) released this week came in lower than had been expected, which led the market to believe that the Fed has further room to take a pause in raising rates and this has kept financial markets fairly quiet this week."

The National Mortgage Rate Snapshop
This Week One Week Ago One Year Ago
30-Yr 15-Yr 5-Yr
ARM		 1-Yr ARM
5.74 5.32 5.26 4.46
0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6
30-Yr 15-Yr 5-Yr
ARM		 1-Yr ARM
5.71 5.30 5.24 4.45
0.6 0.6 0.6 0.7
30-Yr 15-Yr 5-Yr
ARM		 1-Yr ARM
5.75 5.13 --- 4.03

0.8

 0.8 ---

0.7

Source: Freddie Mac


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