Mortgage rates hit another record low this week, with the 30-year fixed rate landing at 3.83%. This is the lowest rate ever since record keeping began in the 1950s.
The rate on a 15-year mortgage dropped all the way to 3.05%, another record.
Dreambuilder can help you take advantage of these low rates by connecting you with our network of financial contacts. Then all we have to do is plan for life in your new custom dream home.
WASHINGTON (AP) – April 6, 2012 – The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was mostly unchanged this week, as the cost of home buying and refinancing stayed near record lows.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan fell slightly to 3.98 percent from 3.99 percent last week. In February, the rate touched 3.87 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage also fell, to 3.21 percent from 3.23 percent. That’s above the record low of 3.13 percent hit last month.
Mortgage rates have been below 4 percent for all but one week since early December. That’s helped lift the outlook for housing after four sluggish years of home sales. Still, most economists expect only modest gains.
January and February made up the best winter for re-sales in five years, when the housing crisis began. And builders are more confident about the market. In February, they requested the most permits to build single-family homes and apartments in more than three years.
Applications for new mortgages rose in March, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, and there was a sharp rise in the average loan size, suggesting a bigger appetite for home loans. The average size of mortgage applications has increased by $20,000 since December, to about $235,000 last month.
An improved job market is driving the modest increase in home sales. Employers have added an average 245,000 net jobs per month from December through February. The unemployment rate has dropped from 9.1 percent in August to 8.3 percent in February, the lowest level in nearly three years.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press, Derek Kravitz, AP economics writer.
Last week the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell again to a record low of 3.88% — the eight such record in the past 12 months.
Rates on 15-year fixed mortgages increased slightly to 3.17%.
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Source: Associated Press/AP Online
Publication date: August 18, 2011
The rate on the most popular mortgage dipped to 4.15 percent from 4.32 percent a week ago, Freddie Mac said Thursday. Its previous low of 4.17 percent was reached in November.
The last time long-term rates were lower was in the 1950s, when 30-year loans weren’t widely available. Most long-term home loans lasted 20 or 25 years. (more…)
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
Publication date: August 4, 2011
The rate for the popular refinancing option dropped to 3.54 percent this week from 3.66 percent last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s lowest result since the mortgage buyer began tracking it in 1991.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed loan fell to a yearly low of 4.39 percent from 4.55 percent the previous week.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 3.18 percent, its lowest level on records that go back to January 2005. Last week’s reading of 3.25 percent also was a record low.
The average rate for one-year adjustable-rate loans rose to 3.02 percent from 2.95 percent last week. Last week’s average rate matched the record low set two weeks earlier on records dating back to 1984.
The rates do not include extra fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.
The average fees for the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans and the 5-year adjustable loan were unchanged at 0.8 point, 0.7 point and 0.6 point, respectively. The average fee for the one-year ARM fell to 0.5 point from 0.6 point last week.
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