Freddie Mac: Current Mortgage Rates Remain Stable

According to Freddie Mac's recently released survey, America's delicate housing market received some good news that current mortgage rates remained stable, at approximately 5%, through Thursday, October 29. A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is currently reported at 5.03%, up slightly from 5.00 last week. However, it is still extraordinarily lower than the 6.46% rate from the same week one year prior.

Freddie Mac's vice president and chief economist, Frank Nothaft, said mortgage rates have averaged just below 5% throughout 2009. Nothaft also said it is the lowest average for a 10-month period since 1971. "As a result, refinance activity has accounted for almost seven out of 10 mortgage applications on average this year."

The current mortgage rates on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 4.46% this week, slightly up from 4.43% last week. For the same week from one year prior, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.19%. Surprisingly, Nothaft said, "New home sales unexpectedly fell 3.6% to 402,000 houses, the weakest since June of this year, based on figures from the Department of Commerce." Nothaft added, "Nonetheless, stronger housing demand has lowered the inventory of unsold existing homes in September to the lowest since January of this year and for new homes the lowest since November 1982, which should help stabilize falling house prices."

-Robert Hyder