Mortgage Rates Set Another Record Low - Freddie Mac

[Jennifer Griner]

Interest rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen for five consecutive weeks, and this week both set a new all-time record low, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

It’s been a good year for borrowers when it comes to the costs associated with purchasing or refinancing a home. Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, explained that interest rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages through all of 2009 have averaged a full percentage point below their respective average in 2008.

Freddie Mac’s latest market survey shows that for the week ending December 3, rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) averaged 4.71 percent (0.7 point). That’s down from last week’s average of 4.78 percent, and significantly lower than the 5.53 percent rate of a year ago.

Freddie Mac said the 30-year rate has never been as low as it is now, since the GSE began its weekly survey in 1971.

Read more on the affordable housing market.


Share the wealth: