WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates around the country fell this week amid increasing signs that the economic recovery is slowing. Rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages dropped to six-month lows.
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported that the average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages declined to 6.76 percent this week, down from 6.81 the previous week, according to a nationwide survey released Thursday.
This week’s rate was the lowest since Nov. 23, when 30-year mortgages averaged 6.75 percent. A year ago this time, 30-year mortgages averaged 7.24 percent.
In early November, rates on 30-year mortgages dropped to 6.45 percent, their lowest point since Freddie Mac began conducting its survey in 1971.
Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, fell to 6.22 percent this week. That was down from 6.28 percent the week before and marked the lowest level since Nov. 16 when 15-year mortgages averaged 5.98 percent. A year ago, 15-year mortgages averaged 6.78 percent.
On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 4.76 percent, down from 4.85 percent the previous week. Last year this time, one-year ARMs averaged 5.89 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.
“Slower economic growth this quarter and little or no inflation worries allowed rates to drift downward these last few weeks to the benefit of homebuyers,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.
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