Long-term mortgage rates rise

Long-term mortgage rates rose off of historic lows in the week ending Thursday, the U.S. Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said. Freddie Mac said the average interest rates for 30-year, fixed-rate loans rose from 3.94 percent to 4.12 percent with an average of 0.8 points for the week. A year earlier during the same week of the year, interest rates averaged 4.19 percent. For 15-year loans, the rate rose from 3.26 percent to 3.37 percent with 0.8 points, rising after a string of six consecutive weeks when the rates hit historic lows. A year earlier, 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.62 percent. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's vice president and chief economist, said a better-than-expected jobs report on Friday triggered the upswing in interest rates. "An employment report that was better than market expectations helped to lift long-term Treasury bond yields and mortgage rates as well," Nothaft said in a statement. "The economy added 103,000 workers in September, aided by the return of striking Verizon workers. In addition, revisions to July and August figures added a total of 99,000 jobs to payrolls. However, these job gains are still not large enough to bring down the current unemployment rate of 9.1 percent," he said.