Current Mortgage Interest Rates

Current mortgage interest rates have been hovering just above 5.00 percent for a fixed rate 30 year mortgage. Current 15 year mortgage interest rates are just below 4.50 percent.

This past Thursday Freddie Mac released their weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey that showed a small uptick in longer term mortgage interest rates.

In the most recent PMMS survey fixed rate 30 year mortgages were at 5.03 percent for the week ending October 29, 2009, up from last week when the average mortgage interest rate was 5.00 percent. 30 year home loan rates were above 6.00 percent a year ago at 6.46 percent. Interest rates are still low historically speaking so if you’re looking to buy or refinance an existing mortgage you should go ahead and do it.

Average 15 year fixed mortgage interest rates are 4.46 percent this week, up from last week when the average mortgage rate was 4.43 percent. A year ago at this time 15 year home loan rates were also above 6.00 percent at 6.19 percent.

Adjustable mortgage rates were also higher this week over last week, current Treasury indexed five year mortgage rates are at 4.42 percent, up from last week’s average loan rate of 4.40 percent. A year ago at this time 5 year mortgage rates were at 6.36 percent. One year mortgage rates are currently at 4.57 percent, up from last week’s average mortgage loan rate of 4.54 percent.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist had the following comments about mortgage interest rates in this week’s survey.

Interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages have averaged just below 5 percent this year, which is the lowest 10-month average since the survey began in 1971. As a result, refinance activity has accounted for almost seven out of 10 mortgage applications on average this year, according to Freddie Mac’s survey.

Economic data releases this week offered mixed signals as to the current state of the housing market. For example, total existing home sales jumped 9.4 percent to an annualized rate of 5.57 million homes in September, the strongest pace since July 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

However, new home sales unexpectedly fell 3.6 percent to 402,000 houses, the weakest since June of this year, based on figures from the Department of Commerce. Nonetheless, stronger housing demand has lowered the inventory of unsold existing homes in September to the lowest since January of this year and for new homes the lowest since November 1982, which should help stabilize falling house prices.