The average weekly primary market rate for a 30-year mortgage in Freddie Mac's survey inched down by a basis point to 3.88% during the week ending Jan. 19, setting the bar for the lowest rate for this loan has ever had just a little bit lower.
In general, during the past week rates scarcely moved. The average 15-year FRM rate dropped one basis point to 3.17%, the average for hybrid five-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages stayed at 2.82%, and the average one-year Treasury ARM rate fell just two basis points to 2.74%.
Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft said in his weekly rate report that the stability in rates resulted from mixed economic indicators during the past week. Nothaft, a Freddie Mac vice president, noted that while some consumer and builder confidence measures registered continuing increases and a producer price indicator came in faster than expected, an industrial production measure was a little below market consensus and a gain in retail sales for the holiday month of December was relatively meager.
Points in the latest week were as follows: 30-year and 15-year loans averaged 0.8 of a point, five-year Treasury hybrids averaged 0.7 of a point, and one-year Treasury ARMs averaged 0.6 of a point.
A year ago, weekly averages for rates were roughly 50 basis points to 90 basis points higher. At that time the 30-year averaged 4.74%, the 15-year averaged 4.05%, the five-year Treasury hybrid averaged 3.69% and the one-year Treasury ARM averaged 3.25%.
