Rates on 30-year mortgages increase

updated 12:48 p.m. ET June 26, 2008

WASHINGTON - Rates on 30-year mortgages edged up this week, while rates on other home loans were a mixed bag.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.37 percent this week. That was up from 6.35 percent last week.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, dipped to 5.91 percent this week, compared with 5.92 percent last week.

Meanwhile, five-year adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 5.82 percent this week, up from 5.78 percent last week. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages held steady at 5.17 percent, unchanged from the previous week.

Earlier this week, there were fresh signs that the painful housing slump was likely to drag on. The National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index slipped 4.7 percent in May to the third-lowest reading on record.

“Pending home sales fell more than expected,” said Freddie Mac’s chief economist Frank Nothaft.

Home foreclosures have hit record highs as sagging home values have left some borrowers owning more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. With more empty homes being dumped on an already glutted market, prices are being pulled lower. Buyers, however, have become harder to find as credit has gotten harder to secure.

Congress is moving ahead on a package to help distressed homeowners. It would allow the Federal Housing Administration to provide them with more affordable, fixed-rate mortgages.

The mortgage rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for 30-year, 15-year and five-year mortgages all averaged 0.6 point this week. The fee on one-year mortgages averaged 0.5 point.

A year ago, rates on 30-year mortgages stood at 6.73 percent, 15-year mortgage rates averaged 6.39 percent, five-year adjustable-rate mortgages were at 6.35 percent and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.71 percent.

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