Mortgage rates set records for nine consecutive weeks

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Mortgage interest rates are once again the lowest they've been since Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey began nearly 40 years ago.

by Broderick Perkins
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Deadline Newsroom - Mortgage interest rates for 30-year, conforming, fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs), for the week ending August 19, averaged 4.42 percent, the lowest it’s been since Freddie Mac's weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey began in 1971.

The all-time low for average 30-year rates came with an average 0.7 point and was down from 4.44 percent last week. The rate averaged 5.12 percent a year ago.

The 15-year FRM this week also averaged a record low of 3.90 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.92 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.56 percent, Freddie Mac reported. This week's rate is the lowest its been since 1991, when Freddie Mac started tracking the rate.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) remained at its lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking it in 2005. It averaged 3.56 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, unchanged from last week's 3.56 percent average. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 4.57 percent.

Freddie Mac reported the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 3.53 percent this week with an average 0.7 point, the same as last week's 3.53 percent average. Last year at this time, the 1-year ARM averaged 4.69 percent.

"Investors in long-term bonds appear very confident that inflation will remain in check, and as a result long-term fixed mortgage rates have continued to fall," said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac deputy chief economist.

"This week marks the ninth straight week in the Primary Mortgage Market Survey that 30-year-fixed mortgage rates have met or set a new record low," she added.

Crystal Chow is a DeadlineNews Group associate editor who contributed to this article.

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop.

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Perkins is managing editor of HomeAway.com's Gulf Coast Response Center.

Perkins was the first Examiner to cover three beats for the Examiner.com news service:
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