Did you miss the best chance to refinance?

NEW YORK — Roger Wald recently discovered he would save $25,000 a year if he refinanced his five-year mortgage at 4.75 percent. Wald, an auto-body repairman in Sarasota, Fla., could have gotten that rate last month.

But like many homeowners, he waited for rates to fall further. Now, he's worried he missed his chance.

Mortgage rates at some lenders spiked by as much as 1 percent on Wednesday and saw little relief on Thursday, according to mortgage brokers.

"The 4.75 percent my broker quoted two weeks ago? There's no way I'm going to get that now," said Wald, 49.

The fear dogging homeowners and investors alike is that April's record lows in mortgage rates may have come and gone.

Mortgage rates have rebounded sharply over the past few days as the nation's growing debt raises concerns that government-backed assets could lose some of their value.

It's a trend that could slow both refinancing and home buying if it continues. Higher mortgage rates won't necessarily derail the economy's recovery, analysts say, but it certainly won't help.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is back at 4.91 percent this week, up from 4.82 percent last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit a record low of 4.78 percent in April, thanks in large part to the Federal Reserve's decision this year to buy as much as $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities and $300 billion in Treasury notes. So far, the central bank has bought $130.5 billion in government debt and more than $431 billion in mortgage securities.

Lower rates led to a surge in mortgage applications. Applications rose for five straight weeks between early March and early April, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And sales of both existing and new homes ticked higher from March to April, according to data released this week.

The Fed's moves, however, have recently lost their effectiveness in the market. The yields on the 10-year and 30-year Treasury notes have surged to a six-month high, and are nearly where they were a year ago. That's significant because Treasury yields, or their annual rates of return, help set mortgage rates.

Mortgage activity is already starting to decline. Mortgage applications tumbled 14 percent in the week ending May 22 from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Applications to refinance a loan were down almost 19 percent.

The Mortgage Bankers Association also said Thursday that a record 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the housing crisis spreads to borrowers with good credit. And the reported wave of foreclosures isn't expected to crest until the end of next year.

The foreclosure rate on prime fixed-rate loans doubled in the last year and now represents the largest share of new foreclosures. Nearly 6 percent of fixed-rate mortgages to borrowers with good credit were past due or in foreclosure.

At the same time, almost half of all adjustable-rate loans made to borrowers with shaky credit were past due or in foreclosure.

The worst of the trouble continues to be centered in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, which accounted for 46 percent of new foreclosures in the country. There were no signs of improvement.

The pain, however, is spreading throughout the country as job losses take their toll.

The number of newly laid-off people requesting jobless benefits fell last week, the government said Thursday, but the number of people receiving unemployment benefits was the highest on record. These borrowers are harder for lenders to help with loan modifications.

President Obama's recent loan-modification and refinancing plan might stem some foreclosures, but not enough to significantly alter the crisis.

"It may be too much to say that numbers will fall because of the plan. It's more correct to say that the numbers won't be as high," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.