Mortgage Rates Take a Breather From Climb

The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages edged down to 7.65% this week from 7.71% last week, Freddie Mac said. Mortgage rates have been on an upward climb for the last two months and have fluctuated from their low this year of 6.74%, at the end of January, to a high of 7.71% last week. Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, averaged 7.30% this week, down from 7.34% last week. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.96% this week, down from 6.05% the previous week. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points, which averaged about 1% of the loan amount for all three types of mortgages.