Interest Rates on the rise for Ninth straight week

Santa Barbara Harbor

Mortgage rates dropped to their lowest annual averages in 45 years in 2016 but continued their steady climb as the year came to a close.

Freddie Mac says that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.32 percent for the week ended Dec. 29, the ninth consecutive week of increases. Fifteen-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.55 percent, also up on both a weekly and annual basis.

In a statement accompanying the report, Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sean Becketti said that rising rates will further erode affordability in 2017.