15 year Mortgage Interest Rates Hit a Record Low

Current mortgage rates are headed lower and lower these days despite the fact that we are coming out of a recession and the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will be raising interest rates in the coming year.

The government sponsored entity, Freddie Mac, released it’s mortgage rate survey showing 30 year mortgage interest rates near a record low and 15 year mortgage interest rates hitting a record low.

The average fixed 30-year mortgage rate was down to4.83 percent this week, with an average 0.7 discount points for the week ending November 12, 2009. Down from last week’s average mortgage interest rate of 4.91 percent. A year ago 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaged 6.04 percent.

Fixed 15-year mortgage rates averaged 4.32 percent this week, down from last week’s average home loan rate of 4.40 percent. Average mortgage discount points were 0.6 points. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.73 percent. 

Average five year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable rate mortgages averaged 4.25 percent this week, down from the prior week’s average of 4.35 percent.  Last year at this time the average 5-year adjustable mortgage interest rate was 5.87 percent. Mortgage points averaged 0.6 points.

One year U.S. Treasury indexed adjustable rate mortgages averaged 4.35 percent this week, , down from last week when it averaged 4.47 percent.  At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.29 percent. Discount mortgage points average 0.6 points.

Freddie Mac’s vice president and chief economist had the following comments about the recent low mortgage interest rates.

“Interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans fell for the third consecutive week to the lowest since the week ending May 21^st, while 15-year fixed rates were the lowest since our records began in 1991,”. Low fixed rates throughout the third quarter prompted an estimated $1.1 trillion in refinancing activity, saving homeowners about $10 billion in aggregate monthly payments over the first 12 months of their new loan.  Moreover, for the fourth consecutive quarter, more than 95 percent of prime borrowers who originally had an ARM selected a conventional fixed-rate mortgage in the third quarter of this year.”

 “Meanwhile, new home building showed some weakness in recent months.  Residential construction eased 10.6 percent (annualized) between September and October, largely driven by a 33.3 percent decline in new condominium and apartment buildings and represented the slowest pace since records began in 1959.  And home builder confidence in November remained a relatively low level, according to the National Association of Home Builders.”