Rates Decline

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.66% for the week ending Feb. 13 from 5.72% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.The average 15-year fixed mortgage rate fell from 5.03% to 4.96%, and the average rate for one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages dipped from 3.61% to 3.57%. Fees and points averaged 0.7 of a point for all three mortgage categories. "Markets remained tame while waiting for Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's semiannual testimony to House members about the state of the economy," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "Greenspan led the markets to believe that the Fed's actions would be on hold until there was more than sufficient growth in the economy to warrant a change in monetary policy. In other words, there is still enough slack in the economy to leave rates at their current accommodative level for some months to come." A year ago, the average 30-year and 15-year fixed rates were 5.86% and 5.26%, respectively, and the average one-year ARM rate was 3.89%, Freddie Mac said. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.