30 year fixed rate

Monday 06/19/2006: For the week ended 6/9/2006, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.61% from 5.62%, the same period a year ago, for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans with approx. 1 discount point. Based on our median price of approx. $600,000, this increase represents an increase of $307 monthly, or $3,684 annual mortgage payments, for borrowers putting 20% down. For more highly leveraged loans, the increases in monthly payments are, by all means, much more substantial. However, this would've been fine were there real income increases to support the higher payments. Unfortunately, there have been no significant increases in real personal incomes.