NEW YORK (Reuters) - Interest rates on U.S. 30-year mortgages rose to their highest levels in nearly a month even as U.S. Treasury bond yields have held in a tight trading range since last week, mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac (OB:FMCC) said on Thursday.
The average 30-year mortgage rate was 3.48 percent in the week ended July 28, compared with 3.45 percent in the previous week. The latest figure matched the one in the week ended June 30, Freddie Mac said in its latest mortgage rate survey.
"Nonetheless, home sales continue to benefit from the persistently low mortgage rates," Freddie Mac chief economist Sean Becketti said in a statement, referring to government data released on Tuesday which showed domestic new home sales in June strengthened to their fastest monthly pace since February 2008.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yield last traded at 1.523 percent early Thursday, compared with 1.565 percent a week earlier. On July 6, it hit a record low of 1.321 percent, Reuters data showed.
In early July, the 30-year mortgage rate hit a three-year low at 3.41 percent, 10 basis points above the record low set in November 2012, according to Freddie Mac.