Mortgage rates hit four-year high
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SCOTT JAGOW: All those Fed interest rate hikes are starting to bleed over into mortgage rates — and not just adjustable rate mortgages either. More now from Hillary Wicai.
HILLARY WICAI: Freddie Mac says rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.67 percent this week. That’s just over a point higher than this time last year. The average for 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages is higher as well. Greg McBride is with Bankrate.com. He says these higher rates are an additional headwind on an already slowing housing market.
GREG MCBRIDE: Mortgage volume is down about 20 percent relative to a year ago but there’s still a lot of refinancing in the pipeline because there’s a lot of adjustable rate mortgage borrowers that are seeing a potential increase coming down the pipeline and realizing that now is the time to act.
He says borrowers with adjustable rate mortgages scheduled to jump up would do well to refinance to a fixed-rate loan before those rates get even higher.
In Washington, I’m Hillary Wicai for Marketplace.
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