Most mortgage rates dip to new record lows

Mortgage interest rates for 30-year, conforming, fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) for the week ending June 24 averaged 4.69 percent, just off the last record 4.71 percent set December 3, 2009. The new record low is the lowest the rate has been since April 1971.

by Broderick Perkins
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Deadline Newsroom - All but one mortgage rate tracked weekly by Freddie Mac hit all time record lows this week, on the heels of the Federal Reserve keeping benchmark, short term interest rates unchanged.

Mortgage interest rates for 30-year, conforming, fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) for the week ending June 24 averaged 4.69 percent, just off the last record 4.71 percent set December 3, 2009. The new record low is the lowest the rate has been since April 1971 when Freddie Mac first began its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The June 24 average 30-year rate came with an average 0.7 point and was down from 4.75 percent last week and 5.42 percent a year ago.

The 15-year FRM, this week, averaged 4.13 percent with an average 0.6 point, the lowest the 15-year FRM has been since Freddie Mac began tracking the rate in September 1991. The new record was also down from last week when it averaged 4.20 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 4.87 percent, Freddie Mac reported.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.84 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, down from last week's 3.89 percent average. This is the lowest the 5-year ARM has been since Freddie Mac started tracking it in January 2005. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 4.99 percent.

The new low interest rate records came after continued reports of sluggish home sales and after the Federal Reserve proclaimed it would hold short-term interest rates near zero longer, for "an extended period," a policy it's held since 2008.

Citing high unemployment, sluggish domestic economic growth and financial turmoil overseas, the Fed's policy should help keep mortgage interest rates low, perhaps breaking new records in the months ahead.

Freddie Mac reported the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 3.77 percent this week with an average 0.7 point, down from last week's 3.82 percent average. The 1-year ARM has not been lower since the week ending May 6, 2004, which it averaged 3.76 percent. The record low for the 1-year ARM, 3.36 percent came during the week of March 25, 2004. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.93 percent.

"Mortgage rates for all but traditional 1-year ARMs hit all-time record lows this week in our survey while activity in housing market slowed in May following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

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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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