Rates top 3% for first time since last summer

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular mortgage product, rose above 3% for the first time in seven months this week.

According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average climbed to 3.02% with an average 0.6 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1% of the loan amount and are in addition to the interest rate.) It was 2.97% a week ago and 3.29% a year ago.

The 30-year fixed average, which hasn’t been above 3% since late July, has jumped more than 35 basis points since January. (A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.)

Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage investor, aggregates rates from around 80 lenders across the country to come up with weekly national average mortgage rates. It uses rates for high-quality borrowers with strong credit scores and large down payments. Because of the criteria, these rates are not available to every borrower.

Because the survey is based on home purchase mortgages, rates for refinances may be higher. The price adjustment for refinance transactions that went into effect in December is adding to the cost. The adjustment, which applies to all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinances, is 0.5% of the loan amount. That works out to $1,500 on a $300,000 loan.

The 15-year fixed-rate average was unchanged at 2.34% with an average 0.7 point. It was 2.79% a year ago. The five-year adjustable rate average dropped to 2.73% with an average 0.3 point. It was 2.99% a week ago and 3.18% a year ago.