The 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) reached record lows this week, Freddie Mac reported today. (The 30-year fixed-rate survey began in 1971, and the 15-year began in 1991.)
The five-year adjustable rate mortgage also slipped to its lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking it in 2005.
The average for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 4.49 percent, down from last week’s 4.54 percent. Last year at this time, it was 5.22 percent.
For the 15-year FRM, the new record was 3.95 percent in comparison with 4.00 percent last week and 4.63 percent last year.
Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.63 percent, down from last week’s 3.76 percent and last year’s 4.73 percent.
One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 3.55 percent this week versus 3.64 percent the previous week and 4.78 percent a year ago.
Attributing the declines to a drop in growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist, commented:
This reduces inflationary pressures and allows longer-term rates room to ease.
More recently, housing investment picked up in the second quarter of this year as the homebuyer tax credit spurred new and existing sales and low mortgage rates encouraged remodeling. Fixed residential investment added 0.6 percentage points to second quarter real GDP growth following two quarters of decline.
For those of us who remember mortgage interest rates in the mid- to high-teens, such numbers are nothing short of astonishing. If I were buying real estate and needed financing, I’d be thrilled.
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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022
M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201
Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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