30 Year Mortgage Rate Rises, ARM Shoots up

One week ago, you could have gotten a great rate on a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage to finance that dream home with a white picket fence in the suburbs.

How times have changed.

“The ARM market melted down basically in a week,” says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans.

According to the latest Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders, the average rate on a 5/1 ARM shot up 49 basis points last week, to 6.21 percent.

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 7 basis points, to 6.39 percent. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The mortgages in this week’s survey had an average total of 0.40 discount and origination points. Thirty-year rates are now 82 basis points higher than their January lows.

The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 6 basis points, to 5.85 percent, and the 30-year fixed jumbo rose 17 basis points, to 7.6 percent.