Ending a three-week slide, the average rate for a benchmark 30-year mortgage ticked up 10 basis points over the past week to 4.19 percent and is now running 40 basis points above the 3.79 rate in place at the same time last year but remains 11 basis points below the 4.30 percent rate in place at the end of 2016.
The average 30-year rate has jumped 65 basis points over the past three months and 78 basis points since early July, according to data from Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, a move which shouldn’t have caught any plugged-in readers by surprise.
And while the Fed’s three predicted rate hikes this year won’t directly translate into quarter-point hikes in mortgage rates, the first hike is expected to occur in June with a probability of 72 percent, up from 66 percent two weeks ago, according to an analysis of the futures market.