BANKING & FINANCE - Aug. 29, 1992

Mortgage Rates Rise Above 8%: Rates on 30-year mortgages jumped back over 8% this week, pushed up by the plunge in the dollar. Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 8.01%, up from 7.87% last week, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. The jump brings the rate back to its level of early August, before it sunk to last week’s 19-year low. Because of uncertainty surrounding the dollar, economists were unsure whether mortgage rates would continue to rise or whether this week’s increase would prove to be a blip. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.26%, up from 5.20% last week. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.