Mortgage interest rates across the board dropped back down this week, following three straight weeks of increases for long-term, fixed-rate home loan products. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's VP and chief economist, explained that the upward trend was reversed by reports of low, benign inflation figures.
According to Freddie Mac's ""Primary Mortgage Market Survey"":http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/release.html (PMMS) released on Thursday, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) is now averaging 5.38 percent (0.7 point). Last week, the 30-year rate came in at 5.59 percent, and last year at this time, it was 6.42 percent.
The GSE reported the 15-year FRM for the week ending June 18, 2009, averaged 4.89 percent (0.7 point). Last week, it was 5.06 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.02 percent.
This week, 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 4.97 percent (0.6 point) in Freddie Mac's study. That figure is also down from last week, when it was 5.17 percent, and a year ago, when the 5-year ARM averaged 5.89 percent.
The interest rate for 1-year ARMs averaged 4.95 percent this week (0.6 point). According to Freddie Mac's market data, last week the 1-year ARM averaged 5.04 percent, and at this time last year, it was 5.19 percent.
Nothaft said, ""It’s still too early to tell whether the decline in housing market activity has hit bottom yet. The prior three-week run up in rates for 30-year fixed mortgages, which amounted to over 0.75 percentage points, is starting to slow homebuyer demand, at least temporarily.""