BANKING & FINANCE : 30-Year Mortgage Rates Creep Up
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 7.20% this week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said. The average was 7.17% for the previous week. Rates hit a 25-year low of 6.74% in mid-October, but have been above 7% for all of November and December. On one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 4.19%, down from 4.21% last week. Fifteen-year mortgages, an increasingly popular option for refinancings, averaged 6.65% this week, down from 6.69% a week earlier. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.
