Mortgage Rates Fall to Four-Year Low

Mortgage rates continued to fall for the fourth consecutive week, with rates on a traditional 30-year fixed mortgage falling to 5.48 percent for the week ended January 24. In its weekly rate survey, Freddie Mac said that rates averaged 5.69 percent last week. Rates on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage have not been lower since the week ending March 25, 2004. Five-year Treasury-indexed ARMs average 5.13 percent this week, according to the rate survey, down from last week’s 5.40 percent — the lowest rate since June 2005. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate and 1-year ARMs fell as well, Freddie Mac reported. “Economic news released last week confirmed the weak condition of the housing market,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “When the Federal Reserve cut the target federal funds rate by three quarters of a percentage point, the action was extraordinary in both the magnitude and the timing of the rate cut. As a result, mortgage rates continued trending down for the fourth consecutive week across loan products.” For more information, visit http://www.freddiemac.com.