Daily Real Estate News  |  September 26, 2008

30-Year Mortgage Rates Rise This Week

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to an average of 6.09 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point.

Rates are up from last week when they averaged 5.78 percent, but are lower than last year at this time, when 30-year rates averaged 6.42 percent.

Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages are still more than 0.5 percentage points below this year's peak of 6.63 percent, set the week of July 24th.

15-Year Rates at 5.77%

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage this week averaged 5.77 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.35 percent. A year ago at this time,15-year mortgage rates averaged 6.09 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 6.02 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.67 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 6.15 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.16 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.03 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.60 percent.

Market Remains Soft

"The latest housing information for the third quarter continues to show some softness in prices and sales activity," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

He noted that house prices fell 5.3 percent over the twelve months ending in July – weaker than the market consensus – according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's purchase-only house price index.

Meanwhile, the August median sales price for existing single-family homes fell 9.7 percent over the year earlier, the largest 12-month drop since records began in 1968, according the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

Source: Freddie Mac