Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage investor, aggregates rates from about 80 lenders across the country to come up with weekly national average mortgage rates. It was 2.20 percent a week ago and 2.97 percent a year ago. Mortgage rates usually follow the same path as long-term bonds, but that hasn’t been the case lately because of the Federal Reserve’s actions in the market. Since early in the pandemic, the Fed has been buying $120 billion in bonds each month, which has held down mortgage rates. “With mortgage rates expected to slowly rise above 3 percent later this year, many borrowers are acting now.

Source: Washington Post February 04, 2021 15:26 UTC