Mortgage rates rise slightly

WASHINGTON — After falling for two weeks, rates on 30-year mortgages edged up slightly this week.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.46 percent this week, compared with 6.45 percent last week.

The rate last week was the lowest since 30-year mortgages averaged 6.42 percent the week of May 31.

Analysts attributed the basically unchanged reading to the fact that economic data over the past week came in close to market expectations.

Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said the weakness in housing is continuing to depress price increases.

A Freddie Mac report found that house prices increased by 0.1 percent from April through June. That was the slowest three-month change since the fourth quarter of 1994.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, averaged 6.15 percent this week, compared with 6.12 percent last week. Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 6.32 percent, compared with 6.35 percent last week.

Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, which had risen steeply last week, dropping to 5.74 percent from 5.84 percent.

Many economists believe the Federal Reserve soon will decide to cut a key interest rate in an effort to insulate the economy from recent turmoil in the housing and financial markets.

The mortgage rates do not include add-on fees known as points. Thirty-year mortgages and 15-year mortgages each carried a nationwide average fee of 0.5 point.

Five-year ARMs and one-year ARMs both carried an average fee of 0.6 point.

A year ago, rates on 30-year mortgages were at 6.47 percent, 15-year mortgages were at 6.16 percent, five-year ARMS averaged 6.14 percent and one-year ARMs were at 5.63 percent.