Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was 4.66 percent, up from 4.61 percent last week, extending the most prolonged increase in rates in 46 years. Pushing toward the significant 5 percent level, the new average benchmark rate was the highest since May 5, 2011. By contrast, the 30-year rate averaged 3.95 percent a year ago. The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans increased to 4.15 percent from 4.08 percent last week. “Mortgage rates so far in 2018 have had the most sustained increase to start the year in over 40 years,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Through May, rates have risen in 15 out of the first 21 weeks (71 percent), which is the highest share since Freddie Mac began tracking this data for a full year in 1972.”
Washington Post (05/24/18) Kathy Orton