Average fixed mortgage rates saw their record lows get lower for the second consecutive week in Freddie Mac’s survey for the week ending Oct. 4.
“Rates continue to stay at record lows and kind of trade in a low band,” Rick Allen chief operating officer at Mortgage Marvel said in a recent interview.
Longer-term rates have been lower in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s decision to start buying fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities with that aim in mind, in addition to signs of a weakening economy, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft said in his weekly rate report.
The 30-year rate’s record average weekly low is now down four basis points from
Shorter-term primary market survey rates also are lower than a year ago, but their direction was mixed week-to-week.
The rate for a five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid was up one basis point from the previous week at 2.72%, and the rate for a one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage was down three basis points from the previous week at 2.57%. A year ago the one-year Treasury ARM rate averaged 2.95% and the five-year Treasury hybrid rate averaged 2.96%.
This is the first time the 15-year rate has been lower than the five-year Treasury hybrid rate since the week ending Oct. 15, 2009, Freddie Mac noted.
Points in the most recent week averaged 0.6 of a point for 30-year and five-year Treasury hybrid loans, 0.5 of a point for 15-year loans and 0.4 of a point for one-year Treasury ARMs.
