Real estate notebook

Published 10:15 pm Sunday, September 12, 2010

Mortgages

Rates for 30-year home loans ticked down for the second-straight week, remaining close to record lows reached over the spring.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.07 percent this week, down from 5.08 percent a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday. Rates, while above the record low of 4.78 percent hit in the spring, are still at attractive levels for people looking to buy a home or refinance.

Rates should stay low as government efforts to keep them low remain effective, said Michael Larson, an interest rate and real estate analyst with Weiss Research. But it won’t last forever. Rates will eventually trend upward, he added, as the economy starts to turn around and concerns return about how long overseas investors can stomach massive levels of U.S. debt.

People

Mike Reed has joined Prospect Mortgate at Keller Williams in Marysville. He has been financing homes and commercial properties in Washington since 1974.

Send news to Mike Benbow, Business editor, The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, by fax at 425-339-3435 or by e-mail at economy@heraldnet.com.