30-year fixed mortgage rate dips to 4.77% average in latest week

NEW YORK (AP) — Rates on fixed mortgages dipped this week after rising steadily the past two months.

Freddie Mac says the average rate on 30-year mortgages dropped to 4.77% from 4.86% the previous week. It hit a 40-year low of 4.17% in November.

The rate on 15-year loans slipped to an average 4.13% from 4.20%. It reached 3.57% in November, lowest on records starting in 1991.

Rates have been rising since November, as investors shifted money out of Treasury securities and into stocks. Many expect the continuing tax cuts will fuel economic growth and boost inflation. That makes stocks more attractive than bonds, whose fixed yields are eroded by inflation. So bond prices fall, and bond yields, which move opposite from prices, rise.

Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year Treasury notes. Those rates have been fluctuating in recent weeks.