""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com reported Thursday that mortgage interest rates have done a 180 and are now starting to climb, buoyed by positive housing data over recent weeks which show the market ended 2011 on a high note. Still, interest rates on home loans remain extremely low by historical standards.
[IMAGE]For the week ending January 26, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.98 percent (0.7 point), reversing its previous three-week trend of setting all-time record lows. Despite the jump, this marks the eighth consecutive week the 30-year fixed rate has remained below 4.00 percent.
The 30-year rate jumped 10 basis points over the past week, up from 3.88 percent reported by the GSE last Thursday. As a point of comparison, though, last year at this time the 30-year averaged 4.80 percent.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Freddie Mac’s study puts the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.24 percent (0.8 point) this week, up from last week’s average of 3.17 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year rate was averaging 4.09 percent.
The 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.85 percent (0.7 point) this week. It was 2.82 percent last week and 3.70 percent this time last year.
The 1-year ARM was the only loan product in Freddie’s study that did not show upward movement, but there was no downward movement either. It came in at 2.74 percent (0.6 point), matching last week’s average. A year ago, the 1-year ARM averaged 3.26 percent.
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, cited several pieces of positive housing data that point to improvements in the marketplace.
New construction of single-family homes rose 4.4 percent in December to an annualized rate of 470,000. That’s the most since April 2010, Nothaft noted.
Existing home sales increased 5.0 percent at the end of 2011 to an annualized sales pace of 4.61 million units â€" the largest amount since May 2010.
In addition, Nothaft points out that pending home sales in November and December averaged the highest reading since the March and April 2010 period.
Freddie Mac’s ""weekly mortgage rate survey"":http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/ averages data gathered from 125 lenders across the country.