The past week's mortgage rates, monitored by Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), for 30 year fixed-rate mortgages remained below 5.00 percent at 4.83 percent and an average 0.7 point for the week ending November 19, 2009. This is a continued decrease from last week's 4.91 percent. 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaged 6.04 percent the same time last year.
The 15-year fixed rate mortgage this week averaged 4.32 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.36 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.73 percent.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4.25 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.29 percent. A year ago, the 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 5.87 percent.
The one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4.35 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.46 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 5.29 percent.
“Interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans fell for the third consecutive week to the lowest since the week ending May 21st, while 15-year fixed rates were the lowest since our records began in 1991,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Low fixed rates throughout the third quarter prompted an estimated $1.1 trillion in refinancing activity, saving homeowners about $10 billion in aggregate monthly payments over the first 12 months of their new loan. Moreover, for the fourth consecutive quarter, more than 95 percent of prime borrowers who originally had an ARM selected a conventional fixed-rate mortgage in the third quarter of this year.
“Meanwhile, new home building showed some weakness in recent months. Residential construction eased 10.6 percent (annualized) between September and October, largely driven by a 33.3 percent decline in new condominium and apartment buildings and represented the slowest pace since records began in 1959. And homebuilder confidence in November remained a relatively low level, according to the National Association of Home Builders .”
Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.
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