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Mortgage rates move higher, say Freddie Mac, Bankrate
By Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — Both Freddie Mac and Bankrate agree that mortgage rates moved higher over the past week. They disagree, however, as to the extent of the increase.
Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey found the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage barely moving, up to 4.50 percent with 0.70 point from 4.49 percent a week earlier. Bankrate’s survey found a much more substantial increase, to 4.71 percent with 0.41 point from 4.65 percent a week earlier.
"Mortgage rates were little changed this week as financial market participants shrugged off the recent inflation reports,” Freddie Mac Chief economist Frank Nothaft said. “The core producer price index rose just 0.2 percent in May while the core consumer price index increased 0.3 percent, both near the market consensus forecast.”
Bankrate, not surprisingly came to another conclusion in its analysis. It saw the turnaround in rates stemming in part from reports showing the economy that if not improving at least isn’t getting any worse. It also put a different interpretation on the same reports on inflation that Nothaft cited. Instead of a minimal concern, it saw inflation as a risk that won’t go away even as commodity prices, such as gasoline, move lower.
“This is likely to put a floor under mortgage rates, pending any evidence of continued economic weakening,” Bankrate said.
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