Mortgage Rates Edge Down, Freddie Mac

2010 January 28

30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.98% for the week ending January 28, down slightly from 4.99% last week and 5.10% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates.

15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.39%, down from 4.40% last week and 4.80% a year ago.

5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.25%, down from 4.27% last week and 5.27% a year ago.

1-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.29%, down from 4.32% last week and 4.90% a year ago.

To obtain the rates, the fixed-rate mortgages and the 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage required payment of an average 0.6 point, and the 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage required an average 0.5 point. A point is equal to 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a news release:

“Mortgage rates held steady this week ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy committee meetings. The Fed announced on January 27 that economic activity has continued to strengthen. It also noted that with substantial resource slack continuing to restrain cost pressures and with longer-term inflation expectations stable, inflation is likely to be subdued for some time.

The number of new one-family housing starts hit a historical low of just under half a million units since records began in 1959. Similarly, new home sales were under 400,000 homes, an all-time record since data compilation began in 1963. Total existing home sales, however, rose to almost 5 million houses, which was the first annual increase in four years.”

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