Fixed Mortgage Rates Remain Steady

Fixed mortgage rates remained steady this week, according to the weekly Freddie Mac rate survey.

30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.24 percent, up slightly from the 4.23 percent they averaged last week. This is down from a 4.98 percent average at this time last year. Averages on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped slightly to 3.63 percent from 3.66 percent last week. This is down from the 4.40 percent that they averaged at this time last year.

ARM rates hit record lows. The 3.39 percent average rate for 5-year ARMs was down an average of .6 percent from last week’s average of 3.41 percent. The rates continue to be the lowest since Freddie Mac began reporting the ARM rate in 2005. 1-year ARM rates averaged 3.26 percent this week down from the 3.30 averages reported last week.
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist, attributed the low ARM rates to, “little sign of inflation to push up long-term interest rates.”

The survey also reported that the core price index for personal expenditures, which is closely followed by the Federal Reserve, had its smallest increase since September 2001— just 1.1 percent over the past year ending in September.