""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com today released the results of its ""Primary Mortgage Market Survey"":http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/release.html (PMMS) for the week ending February 26, 2009, showing little change in mortgage rates this week with only slight upticks in three of the four categories of loan products analyzed.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.07 percent (with an average 0.7 point). Last week the 30-year FRM averaged 5.04 percent, and last year at this time it averaged 6.24 percent.
The average 15-year FRM this week was 4.68 percent (with an average 0.7 point), unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.72 percent.
Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 5.06 percent (with an average 0.7 point), up from last week when it averaged 5.04 percent. During the same week in 2008, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.43 percent.
One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.81 percent (with an average 0.6 point). Last week the 1-year ARM averaged 4.80 percent, and last year it was 5.11 percent.
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's VP and chief economist, noted that the minute changes in mortgage rates this week came amid mixed data reports of a slowing economy. ""Both the core Producer Price and Consumer Price Indexes ticked up in January, higher than the market consensus, while consumer confidence in February fell to the lowest reading since records began in January 1967,"" Nothaft said.
According to Nothaft, lower house prices and affordable mortgage rates have yet to spur housing demand. He cited the purchase-only home price index released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week, which showed house prices declined by 8.7 percent for the 12 months ending in December 2008 and were down 10.9 percent from their highs set in April of 2007. However, Nothaft said, existing home sales fell 4.7 percent in January to 4.05 million units (annualized), the slowest pace since July 1997.