“Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans fell for the third consecutive week to the lowest since the week ending May 21, while 15-year fixed rates were the lowest since our records began in 1991,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, in a news release.
Rates for 30 year fixed-rate mortgages fell to their lowest levels since May, according to a Freddie Mac report.
The average rate for a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage is now 4.83% (as of Nov. 19) which is a drop for last week’s already low 4.91%. To put this in perspective, the average a year ago was 6.04%.
The rate for 15 year fixed-rate mortgages also dropped. A year ago the average rate was 5.73%, and just last week it was 4.36%. As of Nov. 19, the average has fallen to 4.32%.
All of this has led to a major increase of mortgage refinancing:
more than 95% of prime borrowers who originally had an ARM selected a conventional fixed-rate mortgage in the third quarter of this year
This is good news, it means many who made the mistake of getting an ARM have realized how dangerous they are and have gotten out. It also means less ARMs to default when the rate would have reset.
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That is something very long over due. The credit card companies have been taking advantage of people long enough. It will be interesting to see the final outcome in feb/2010
a chto takoe molocnik?
[...] mortgage rates dropped to record lowsa few weeks back, they really had little room to keep falling. It should come as no surprise then [...]