Economic releases in recent days have signaled positive movement, albeit gradual, toward a strengthening economy. The rosier outlook has led mortgage interest rates higher.
[IMAGE]The 30-year fixed-mortgage rate on ""Zillow Mortgage Marketplace"":http://www.zillow.com/mortgage/ came in at 3.74 percent, up five basis points from 3.69 percent at the same time last week. The 30-year rate hovered between 3.67 and 3.73 percent for the majority of the week, rising to the published reading of 3.74 percent early Tuesday morning.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Zillow's real-time mortgage rates are based on thousands of mortgage quotes submitted daily to anonymous borrowers on the company's marketplace site. Zillow's numbers are not marketing rates or a weekly survey, but instead reflect the most recent changes in the market.
The rate for a 15-year fixed-mortgage registered 2.99 percent, up from 2.95 percent one week earlier, while the rate for a 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) is now 2.68 percent, rising from 2.65 percent reported last week.
Experts say conditions are primed for mortgage rates to continue to rise in the coming weeks and months.
""With each piece of positive economic news, we will likely give up a little ground,"" Michael Kraus of Total Mortgage Services noted in his ""Tuesday blog post"":http://www.totalmortgage.com/blog/mortgage-rates/current-mortgage-rates-for-tuesday-march-13-2012/16066. ""Certainly there will be times that rates will fall, but I think the long term trend will be for rates to increase, at least into the summer.""
Zillow provides visitors to its site with state-specific mortgage rates should they want to get local. Visit ""Zillow.com/Mortgage-Rates"":http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates for additional details.