Mortgage Rates Rise; Loan Applications Fall

The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, which had edged down during the last three weeks, rose to 7.70% this week, up from 7.52% last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac reported. Aside from the last three weeks, mortgage rates have been on a climb this year. Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, averaged 7.29% this week, up from 7.16% last week. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.99% this week, up from 5.97% last week. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points, which averaged at or a little more than 1% of the loan amount for all three types of mortgages. In a separate report, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. said that mortgage loan applications fell 3.1% last week and were down 25.6% compared with the same week last year.