Family Life

12.18.09 | FL News Team

Homebuyers with good credit and 20-percent to put down on a home were finding 30-year fixed rate mortgages under five-percent this week. That era may be ending according to the "Los Angeles Times." The paper is reporting as the economy improves the yield on bonds is rising. That's pulling mortgage rates upward too. The movement is despite an announcement Thursday from the Federal Reserve that benchmark interest rates would stay near zero percent for the foreseeable future. Freddie Mac 30-year-fixed rates had been about four-point-eight-percent a week ago. Thursday the rate was up to four-point-nine-four-percent and rising.

 The low rates of the past two months have been a boon to current homeowners. Freddie Mac economist Frank Nothaft says about three-quarters of all home loans written in the first two weeks of this month were refinancings.