WASHINGTON – Rates for 30-year and 15-year mortgages around the country dropped this week, according to a nationwide survey released Thursday.
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported that the average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages declined to 6.81 percent this week from 6.89 the previous week. A year ago this time, 30-year mortgages averaged 7.20 percent.
Rates on 30-year mortgages hit a low of 6.45 percent in early November, their lowest point since Freddie Mac began conducting its nationwide survey in 1971.
Even though rates have moved higher since that time, analysts believe that mortgage rates will be fairly stable this year and will continue to support the housing market.
Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, fell to 6.28 percent from 6.37 percent the week before. A year ago, 15-year mortgages averaged 6.74 percent.
However, on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 4.85 percent, up from 4.81 percent the previous week. Last year this time, one-year ARMs averaged 5.85 percent.
These rates do not include add-on fees known as points, which averaged around 0.7 percent of the loan amount for all three types of mortgages last week.
Even though mortgage rates are low, Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, predicted home mortgage refinancing activity – which hit record levels last year – will slow this year.
“Although mortgage rates are at generationally low levels, refinancing should start to drop off, as just about everyone who had an incentive to refinance into a lower rate has done so,” he said.
People
Michelle Keal-Schmidt was named a member of Irwin Mortgage’s Chairman’s Club for creating $20.6 million in loan volume. She received a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands as a reward. Keal-Schmidt works in the company’s Everett office.
New brokerage
Re/Max Metro Properties will hold a grand opening for its Mukilteo office from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 1, at 631 Fifth Street, Suite 100.
Send your real estate news items 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.
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