Some Lenders Boost Rates as Demand Rises
NEW YORKÛÓEven though interest rates may not have hit bottom, some mortgage lenders are raising the rates they charge as homeowners rush to refinance their loans.</br></br>Some lending institutions are marking up mortgage rates because of the tide of refinancing applications, which gives them a pricing advantage, mortgage bankers say.</br></br>ÛÏWhen there is greater demand than supply, that is what any retailer would do," said John Sousa, president of Commonwealth Mortgage Co. in Burlington, Mass.</br></br>greater now than in a slow market," added Bill Brewster, assistant director at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.</br></br>The national average for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan was 8.82 percent on Feb. 6, up from a recent low of 8,31 percent on Jan. 10, according to HSH Associates, a mortgage information firm in Butler, NJ.