As we close in on the end of 2016, it's time to take our annual look back at the year that was in the mortgage rates.

"Mortgage rates in 2016 actually wound up being great," said Chris McKenna, CapCom FCU Chief Lending Officer. "There was a little bit of an up tick in January and February. Then they really came down to historical lows and really remained steady throughout the overwhelming majority of the year."

There was a sudden increase late in the year.

"Rates actually jumped probably over half a point almost immediately following the election," McKenna said. "So, the base 30 year fixed rate was down in the lower threes, it's really moved to up near four percent. and that's really a direct result of the election and the market. It's really market driven. So if you look at the way the stock market has responded to the election, we're hitting historical highs in the Dow and S&P."

Expectations for 2017 are for the rates to continue to rise, but that's not guaranteed.

"Overwhelmingly economists are projecting upward movement, but, again, no crystal ball when it comes to predicting where they actually wind up," McKenna said. "When you're looking at a base 30 year fixed rate around four percent, that is still so low compared to historical times. I bought my first house and it was nine percent interest rate. So, to see four percent really is not bad."

With rates staying steady for most of the year, the refinance market was also quite busy in 2016, with one of two objectives in mind.

"When it comes to refinancing we typically see about 50 percent of the people that are refinancing are refinancing just to get another rate," McKenna said. "Another 50 percent are doing it, again, because of a life event. So they're taking cash out to either put on an addition, put a pool in, maybe help with tuition. When you start to see rates go up, sometimes you see more people taking home equity loans and keeping their first mortgage and only taking the cash out through a home equity loan, but then they typically have two payments and it's typically more expensive than rolling everything into one and having one payment."

As always, we'll continue to monitor the numbers for you throughout the new year.