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Freddie Mac reports fourth week of rising mortgage rates

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Homebuyer alert: Got an extra $100 or so a month?

That is how much more a 30-year fixed loan for $400,000 would cost you at today’s typical interest rate compared with when rates scraped bottom four weeks ago, according to a new weekly survey released Thursday by Freddie Mac.

Freddie reported a fourth straight week of increases in fixed rates, with lenders offering an average 4.61% to well-qualified buyers with 20% down payments or 20% equity in the case of refinancings.

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That was up from 4.46% a week earlier and 4.17% in the survey released Nov. 11. Borrowers would have paid 0.7% of the loan amount on average in upfront lender fees and points in this week’s survey compared with 0.8% four weeks ago, Freddie said.

As my colleague Walter Hamilton reported in a story Thursday morning, the long bull market in bonds appears to be over, with their yields spiking higher. Mortgage rates track the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which has risen from 2.39% in early October to 3.24% early Thursday.

The Freddie Mac survey, conducted from Monday through Wednesday this week, found that lenders were offering 15-year fixed loans at an average of 3.96% with 0.7% in fees and points, up from 3.81% last week and 3.57% four weeks ago.

The start rates for variable-rate mortgages were on the rise as well, according to Freddie, the giant government-controlled buyer and guarantor of home loans.

Payments on a $400,000 mortgage -- not a monstrous sum at California’s still-high home prices -- would be $1949.07 a month at the survey’s all-time low of 4.17%, set four weeks ago. At today’s typical offering rate of 4.61%, the payment would be $2,052.97.

Would-be buyers and refinancers can run their own payment scenarios using online amortization calculators like the ones at Bankrate.com, HSH.com or other data suppliers.

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-- E. Scott Reckard

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