Mortgage Rates and the Ten Year Treasury Yield

With the recent increase in treasury yields, reader shortcourage asked for a graph comparing the 30 year fixed mortgage rate and the ten year treasury yield. Sometimes we do requests ...

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This graph compares the weekly 30 year fixed rate conforming rate from Freddie Mac, and the 10 year treasury yield. The black line is the spread between the two rates.

The spread is back down near the lower end of the range - and this suggests any further increase in the ten year yield will push up morgage rates.

Freddie Mac reported today:

Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.84 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending May 7, 2009, up from last week when it averaged 4.78 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.05 percent.