NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Mortgage rates fell for the first time in five weeks, as the rout in bond prices, which pushed yields higher, became overdone, a mortgage economist said Thursday.
The price on the 10-year Treasury note fell sharply Thursday, however.
The 30-year mortgage rate fell to 6.24 percent in the week ending Aug. 15, from 6.34 percent a week earlier, with an average of 0.7 of a point payable up front, mortgage lender Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 30-year stood at 6.22 percent a year ago.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to 5.58 percent, with 0.7 of a point up front, down from 5.66 percent last week and below the 5.63 percent level of a year ago.
And the rate on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), loosely indexed to the 10-year Treasury note, dropped to 3.75 percent, with 0.7 point up front, from 3.80 percent last week. At the same time last year, the one-year ARM averaged 4.39 percent.
| TOOLS YOU CAN USE
|
|
|
|
|
"The bond markets got a little ahead of themselves, causing yields to rise too quickly over the past few weeks. This week saw a bit of a correction and mortgage rates fell for the first time in eight weeks," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist. "Continued volatility in financial markets, however, will keep rates teetering up and down for some time to come."
Freddie Mac's average mortgage rates are based on a survey of 125 lenders nationwide. The rates include those on mortgages accepted by borrowers with good credit ratings who place a 20 percent down payment on their homes, according to Freddie Mac. The total amount of each mortgage considered for the survey doesn't exceed a $322,700 limit.
| 
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 CNNfn's Lisa Leiter takes a closer look at the increasing concern over rising mortgage rates.
|
Play video
(Real or Windows Media)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Freddie Mac (FRE: up $0.27 to $50.47, Research, Estimates), or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., is a publicly traded company the government established in 1970 to provide a flow of funds to mortgage lenders. It buys mortgages from banks, bundles them and then resells them as mortgage-backed securities.
Its products, and the products of other similar entities, have become increasingly popular as an alternative to government-backed bonds, particularly with international investors.
|
.
