The Latest Breaking News from Freddie Mac

Long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose for the seventh straight week, climbing to their highest level in more than a decade

The interest rate for 30-year mortgage now at 5 per cent for first time since February 2011

A few years after risky mortgages and related investments led to a global financial collapse, the Federal Reserve put out a handbook to help consumers make smarter choices about their home loan options. The focus was on adjustable-rate mortgages, whose exotic variants were among the prime culprits in the meltdown.

Compared to other sectors of the wider economy, the housing and mortgage industries have traditionally been slower to embrace cutting-edge technologies and digital solutions. A myriad of reasons explain this pokey response to evolving change, ranging from the sector’s conservative risk tolerance to a lack of standardization in many evolving technologies.

The latest data news from the housing market included new records being achieved in single-family home and condominium sales, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage crashing through the 4.5% level, and a warning from a prominent industry economist on the potential for a recession created by the Federal Reserve.

This week's housing and mortgage industry data is something of a seesaw ride, with mortgage rates, millennial homebuying and the mortgage delinquency rate rising while mortgage applications and a major builder's output did not. 

In the wake of the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida last year, the two federally chartered agencies that back most residential mortgages in the country, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, have instituted new rules requiring lenders to verify the condition of condominium buildings before approving loans.

Mortgage rates have spiked as a result of rising inflation and stronger than expected consumer spending, according to new data released by Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC). While mortgage rates were on the rise, housing starts were in decline, based on the latest federal data.

Buying a condo in an older South Florida high-rise? For people who want to finance their deal, it’ll be getting tougher to take out a loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that make mortgages available to low- to moderate-income borrowers.