Skip to footer

Mortgage rates slip back toward record lows

Mortgage rates edge down this week to 3.39 percent for a 30-year loan. As mortgage rates have fallen this year to record lows, home sales and refinancings have picked up 

|
Nam Y. Huh/AP
In this October photo, a for-sale sign is posted in Lincolnwood, Ill. Mortgage rates have edged lower and are near their record lows, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012.
  • By Marcy Gordon AP Business Writer

| WASHINGTON

The average U.S. rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage slipped this week and stayed near its record low, a trend that's helped boost home sales and refinancing.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan declined to 3.39 percent from 3.41 percent last week. Four weeks ago, the rate touched 3.36 percent, the lowest level on records dating to 1971.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage, often used for refinancing, fell to 2.70 percent. That's down from 2.72 percent last week and close to the record low of 2.66 percent reached two weeks ago.

The low rates have helped drive a modest housing recovery. Rates have fallen further since the Federal Reserve started buying mortgage bonds in September to try to encourage more borrowing and spending.

Home sales have increased from last year, and prices are rising more consistently in most areas. Builders are more confident and beginning work on more homes.

Lower rates have also persuaded more people to refinance. That typically leads to lower monthly mortgage payments and more spending.

In August, home prices rose in nearly all U.S. cities, and many of the markets that were hit hardest during the housing crisis are starting to show sustained gains, according to the latest Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller index. It was the third straight increase.

Still, the housing market has a long way to a full recovery. And many people are unable to take advantage of the low rates, either because they can't qualify for stricter lending rules or they lack the money to meet larger down payment requirements.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans ticked up to 0.7 point from 0.6.

The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage dipped to 2.58 percent from 2.59 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans remained at 0.4 point.

The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage edged down to 2.74 percent from 2.75 percent. The fee was unchanged at 0.6 point.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Mortgage rates slip back toward record lows
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1102/Mortgage-rates-slip-back-toward-record-lows
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe