Mortgage Rates Lift Above 4% for First Time Since October

Mortgage rates climbed above 4 percent this week, marking a departure from persistently low interest rates for the first time in five months as economic distress lifts stateside and Greece clears hurdles.

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Mortgage giant ""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com/ found the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 4.08 percent, up from 3.92 percent last week but far below last year's 4.81 percent.

Freddie also saw the 15-year loan averaging 3.30 percent, reflecting a climb from 3.16 percent last week, with rates for

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5-year and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) ticking up from 2.83 percent and 2.79 percent to 2.96 percent and 2.84 percent, respectively.

""Frank Nothaft"":http://www.freddiemac.com/bios/exec/nothaft.html, VP and chief economist with Freddie Mac, said in a statement that the lift in rates marks the first time it has occurred since October last year.

""Bond yields rose over the past two weeks in part due to an improving assessment of the state of the economy by the ""Federal Reserve"":http://www.federalreserve.gov/, better than expected results of commercial bank stress tests and the likelihood of a second bailout for Greece,"" he said.

Finance Web site ""Bankrate.com"":http://www.bankrate.com/ largely agreed in a separate statement, chalking up increases to ""[m]ore good news on the U.S. economy and a decreasing likelihood of further Fed bond-buying stimulus"" that drove ""bond investors├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ª for the exits over the past week.""

The Web site posted similar results for 30-year and 15-year loans, which rose from 4.15 percent and 3.38 percent last week to 4.29 percent and 3.48 percent this week, respectively, it said.

For Bankrate.com, the 5-year and 1-year ARMs ascended to 3.24 percent this week from 3.14 percent last week.