Current Issue
Interest rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) and five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are at the lowest levels in the history of Freddie Mac’s (FRE: 1.16 0.00%) weekly mortgage rate survey.
The 15-year FRM interest rate was 4.33% with an average 0.7 point, Freddie said. That’s down from 4.36% one week ago and 5.63% one year ago. It’s the lowest average rate for the 15-year FRM since Freddie Mac started tracking the product in 1991.
Bankrate.com’s index, which tracks large US banks and thrifts, put the 15-year FRM rate at 4.6%, down 4bps.
The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.35% with an average 0.5 point, Freddie said, down from last week’s average of 4.42%. It’s the lowest average rate Freddie has recorded since it began tracking the product in 2005. A year ago, the five-year ARM averaged 5.90%.
Bankrate.com put the five-year ARM average rate at 4.66%, down 3bps from the week prior.
Long-term mortgage interest rates were also down this week in the two national surveys.
The 30-year FRM averaged 4.87% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Oct. 8, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. That’s down from last week’s rate of 4.94% and last year’s rate of 5.94%. It’s the lowest the Freddie Mac survey has been since the week ending May 21, 2009, when the rate was 4.82%.
“Compared to a year ago, consumers could shave almost $134 off their monthly mortgage payments on a 30-year fixed-rate loan for $200,000 by refinancing,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Such low rates are spurring mortgage demand.”
Bankrate.com’s mortgage index had the 30-year FRM at 5.22% with a 0.34 point, down 3bps from 5.25% one-week prior, marking the sixth straight week of declines. One year ago, the index was 6.2%; four weeks ago, it was 5.4%.
Write to Austin Kilgore.
