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Mortgage Rates Reach 10-month high

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. That was the sound that mortgage brokers and borrowers heard this week as interest rates on home loans marched inexorably upward.

Rates began to climb last week and continued higher in the current period, according to Peter Thompson, a senior loan officer at Prospect Mortgage in Naperville, Ill.

"Rates were in a flat range, where they were pretty much sideways for over a month, and now it has broken out and is going in a higher direction," he says.

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 21 basis points this week, to 5.23 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. A basis point is one-hundredth of one percentage point. The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 0.45 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 5.15 percent; four weeks ago, it was 4.94 percent.  Read more

Bank Rate

Here's a look at the state of mortgage rates from Bankrate.com's weekly national survey of large banks and thrifts conducted Dec. 8, 2010.

Mortgage rates continued to catapult upward in the latest weekly survey, with 30-year fixed home loans climbing a sharp 18 basis points to 4.89 percent.

The relatively sharp increase comes after several weeks of rising rates and, if the trend continues, would send 30-year fixed rate mortgages over the 5-percent threshold in the near future.

The ascent was even more severe for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, which climbed 19 basis points, to 4.26 percent from 4.07 percent a week ago. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point.

Other popular home loans had more modest hikes, but rose nonetheless. The 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage hit 3.85 percent, a gain of 11 basis points. With a 5/1 ARM, the mortgage has a fixed rate for the first five years, then is adjusted annually for the remainder of the loan's term.

Meanwhile, 30-year jumbo mortgages were at 5.39 percent, a hike of 10 basis points.

The latest mortgage figures come as a new survey shows that Americans continue to have grave misgivings about the direction of the housing market.

The survey, released jointly by Trulia.com and RealtyTrac, found 58 percent of American adults expect recovery in the housing market won't happen until after 2012. One in five respondents believe it will be 2015 before housing regains its economic health.

"Government incentives have come and gone, and historic lows in interest rates have done little to spur recovery,'' says Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia.  By: Greg Fields

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