Mortgage rates hold onto recent gains

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Mortgage rates held onto last week's substantial gains, ending mixed on the week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

The government-sponsored loan buyer said the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan remained at 6.73 percent for the week ending July 19.

Last year at this time, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.80 percent.

"In a week marked by stock indexes reaching new highs on Wall Street, mortgage rates lingered near the previous week's level as the latest economic indicators did not affect inflation expectations significantly," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's (Charts, Fortune 500) chief economist, said in a statement.

"The most recent statistics suggest that the housing market has yet to reach a trough. Although June's housing starts unexpectedly rose to 1.47 million units, construction of one-unit houses still saw a decline of 0.2 percent: At 1.15 million units, it was the slowest pace since January," he added.

Rising rates, among other factors, caused industry groups like the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the National Association of Realtors to push back their forecasts for a home price recovery. Both groups are now looking to early 2008, compared with a previous outlook for mid-2007.

Doug Duncan, chief economist for the MBA, has said he expects mortgage rates to top out near 7 percent by the end of the year. When rates go up, would-be home buyers face higher monthly mortgage payments, cutting into overall affordability.

In its latest report, Freddie Mac said that rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans averaged 6.38 percent in the latest week, down from 6.39 percent last week.

A year ago, the 15-year rate averaged 6.41 percent.

Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 6.35 percent this week, unchanged from last week. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 6.36 percent.

One-year ARMs averaged 5.72 percent this week, up slightly from last week. At this time last year, they averaged 5.80 percent.