Mortgage Rates Fall for Second Week in a Row

Freddie Mac recently released its weekly mortgage rate survey which showed mortgage rates for both short and long term mortgage products falling including 30 year home loan rates which dropped to their lowest levels in four weeks. 30 year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.71% (.8pts) for the week ending January 13th, 2011. Last week 30 year fixed rates were at 4.77% and are down from 5.06% from the same period last year. 15 year mortgage fixed rate mortgages dropped to 4.08% (.7pts) from 4.13% from last week. Last year at the same time, 15 year home loan rates were at 4.45%.

ARM rates also saw improvement as 5 year ARM rates fell from 3.75% to 3.72% (.6pts). One year ago 5 year ARM rates averaged 4.32% during this same window of time. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's VP and Chief Econmist reported that "Bond yields drifted lower following the release of the December employment report , which was weaker than the market consensus forecast and implied that the labor market is still in a sluggish recovery.  Fixed mortgage rates followed bond yields lower for a second consecutive week, bringing them to a four-week low."

10 year home loan rates listed by providers in the MoneyRates survey on ForTheBestRate.com ranged from 3.750%-4.125% with zero points in North Carolina. To get a better idea of current mortgage rates, visit ForTheBestRate.com.

The data for the Freddie Mac portion of this article came from:
http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/release.html?week=2&year=2011