Mortgage Rates Are on the Rise

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen to 4.61 percent, its highest rate since 2011.

The rate is up from a 4.55 percent average recorded a week earlier, according to data released last week by Freddie Mac. Realtor.com reports that this marks a shift away from the period of declining rates seen since the financial crisis.

“There’s been a regime shift in the way the market is thinking about rates. We’ve been waiting for the period [of higher rates] for a while and now it’s finally happening,” says Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac.

The concern among economists is that higher rates will prompt homeowners to keep their low-rate mortgages rather than trade up for better properties. As rates approach 5%, the risk of the phenomenon known as rate lock grows, economists said.

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