The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. reports that 30-year mortgage rates reversed course and eased to an average 9.18 percent in the past week after advancing the week before to 9.25 percent - a three-year high.
Freddie Mac also said 15-year fixed mortgage rates eased to 8.79 percent from the prior week's 8.89 percent - the highest level ever recorded in the three years the agency has tracked such rates.However, one-year, adjustable-rate notes jumped to 6.9 percent - a three-year high - during the latest week, from 6.75 percent the prior week and 6.56 percent the week before that.
The latest one-year rate represented the highest recorded since since Sept. 27, 1991's 6.83 percent.
Interest rates have been moving generally higher recently, rising in step with the Federal Reserve's hikes in the U.S. discount rate, which the Fed last hiked to 4.75 percent - a three-year high - on Nov. 15.
Mortgage rates, although mostly lower during the past seven days, have zigzagged within a narrow range in recent weeks.
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, has been tracking rates since 1971.
The agency, which adjusts mortgage rates according to prices that mortgage-backed securities bring in the secondary bond market, surveys 125 banks, savings and loans and mortgage lenders to calculate rates.