Is it possible that mortgage rates bottomed out in April and are headed back up from those record lows?
One line of thinking says yes, because the Treasury Department has begun borrowing the staggering amounts of money needed to finance the record federal budget deficit, which is projected to reach $1.84 trillion this fiscal year, or four times more than last year’s record $454.8 billion deficit.
That could drive up the cost of all types of long-term debt, including mortgages, no matter what the Federal Reserve does to try and hold interest rates down.
Mortgage rates certainly rose last month. The average cost of a 30-year, fixed-rate loan went from 5.23% at the end of April to 5.45% at the end of May.
Even a quick look at the big databases at Bankrate.com and Interest.com show lenders are charging more now, than they were a month ago.
AimLoan.com 
continues to offer one of the best deals in 40 of the 50 states. But it’s current offer of 4.75% for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan with $1,995 in fees and 1.572 discount points (which is prepaid interest, with each point equaling 1% of the amount you’re borrowing) isn’t as good as it was in early May — 4.375% with 1.673 points.
It’s also hard to find a mortgage with no points for less than 5.0% in many markets. At the start of last month quite a few lenders were were offering 30-year, fixed-rate loans with no points for 4.875%.
The fine print: The rates we checked are for borrowers with credit scores of at least 700 and who need conforming loans, which means they’re for less than $417,000. For scores from 680 to 699 you’ll usually pay higher fees, up to 1% of the loan value, or a higher rate.
Loading ...
Add New Comment