Mortgage Rates Increase Across the Board

The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 7.19% this week, just short of the 5 1/2-month high reached two weeks before, Freddie Mac said. The increase was from 7.14% last week. The average this year has ranged between 7.22% at the end of April and 6.89%, a four-year low reached in mid-January as nervous investors transferred money from Asia to the United States. The rates for 15-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, rose to 6.82% from 6.78% the previous week. It had hit a six-month high of 6.85% two weeks ago. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.71%, up from 5.65% and the highest in 11 months. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.