Zillow: Most mortgage rates see increases to end March

Average interest rates for all long-term mortgages saw another week of increases to bring March to a close, further decreasing the savings many homeowners looking to consolidate debt by refinancing their loan may be able to receive.

According to the latest Zillow Mortgage Rate Ticker for the week ending March 30, the average interest rate for 30-year fixed mortgages shot up by 0.13 percentage points to hit 4.93 percent for the week. The increase followed up a smaller 0.02 percentage point increase from one week earlier.

Similarly, the average rates for 15-year FRMs increased as well, tacking on 0.07 percentage points to hit 4.26 percent for the week. One week earlier, the average rate had decreased slightly by 0.03 percentage points to hit 4.19 percent.

The only mortgage type to see its average rate decline for the week was 5-1 adjustable-rate mortgages, which plummeted 0.13 percentage points to hit 3.53 percent. The decline nearly erased the 0.14 percentage point increase seen in the rate one week earlier.

Despite the majority of rate increases, the total volume of mortgage requests increased by 7 percent compared to the prior week. Separating the applications out by their average type, 29 percent were for refinance loans while 69 percent were for purchase loans and 2 percent were for home equity loans.