Freddie Mac: 30-year mortgage rate up, 15-year down

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Mortgage rates have had a lot of ups and downs over the years. This week they had both, according to Freddie Mac’s latest weekly survey.

In its report Thursday on what lenders are offering consumers with sterling credit, Freddie Mac said the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed home loan was up slightly while the 15-year loan, a favorite of home refinancers, declined just a bit.

That left borrowers with the same mixed outlook they’d had all winter -- great rates by historical standards but about half a percentage point higher than when the 30-year rate descended to the 4.2% range last fall, providing borrowers the opportunity of a lifetime.

Freddie Mac said this week’s average offering rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan was 4.74%, up from 4.71% last week. The 15-year loan was being offered at an average of 4.05%, compared with 4.08% a week earlier.

Borrowers with solid credit and 20% down payments would have paid an average of 0.8% of the loan amount in upfront lender fees and points to obtain the rates, the big mortgage finance company said.

The historically low rates have yet to touch off a home-buyer spending spree in this still-sluggish economy, and as the Los Angeles Times reported last week, Freddie Mac has revised its projections for mortgage volume sharply lower again (‘Freddie Mac cuts mortgage volume forecast -- again’).

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--E. Scott Reckard