Freddie Sees 10 Weeks of FRMs Under 5%

The average rate for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgages that dominate the market for the week of March 21 slid slightly to 4.82% from 4.86% for the previous week, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Other common loan types' rates also inched downward with the exception of one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages, where the average rate increased to 4.82% from 4.71%. One-year and five-year hybrid Treasury ARMs had 0.6 points on average while 30- and 15-year FRMs had 0.7 points on average. "Long-term fixed-rate mortgage rates have remained below 5% for the past 10 weeks as the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve ... act to keep interest rates low through security purchases," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.