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Article: Mortgage rates highest since '97 Fed's warning prompts reaction
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- May 21, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages jumped
to its highest level since November 1997, an expected reaction to a
Federal Reserve warning it might raise a key interest rate.
The average this week was 7.23%, up from 7.10% the previous week,
the mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Federal Reserve officials said Tuesday that if signs of inflation
continue to show up in the U.S. economy, they were leaning toward
raising the interest rate banks charge each other.
"With last week's news of the sharpest rise in the CPI in almost
nine years, and the Fed's announcement of its bias toward higher
interest rates, mortgage rates began to climb," said Frank Nothaft,
deputy ...