Freddie Mac: 30-year mortgage rates again below 5%

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Typical rates for traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen below 5% again, the big mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said in its latest weekly report.

The survey, conducted Monday through Wednesday, was released Thursday morning. It pegged the average rate nationally at 4.97%, with 0.7% of the loan balance paid in upfront lender charges, or points. Freddie, which polls 125 lenders across the country, said that was the average rate they were offering to borrowers with good credit and a 20% down payment, or at least 20% equity for those refinancing their home loans.

For the week ended Feb. 4, rates averaged 5.01%, Freddie reported. So far this year, the scorecard for the company’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey is three weeks a bit over 5% and three weeks just below. You can check out details at this Freddie Mac website.

As my colleagues Walter Hamilton and Jim Puzzanghera reported Thursday, the approaching end of Federal Reserve purchases of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage bonds is expected to result in rate increases later this year. In their article, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. trade group estimated the typical interest rate might rise by half a percentage point.

If long-term fixed rates rose to 5.5%, that would still be unusually low by historical standards, although it would make any home purchase slightly more expensive. It would, however, greatly damp a continuing mini-boom in refinancings, which Freddie Mac economist Frank Nothaft noted have made up two-thirds of applications for mortgages this year.

Additional findings from the latest Freddie survey:

-- Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.16%.

-- The 15-year fixed-rate home loan this week averaged 4.34% with 0.6 in points, down from 4.40% last week. A year earlier, the 15-year loan averaged 4.81%.

-- The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4.19% this week, with 0.6 in points, down from 4.27% last week and 5.23% a year ago. The rate on these loans is fixed for five years before becoming variable.

--The one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4.33%, up from 4.22% last week but well below an average 4.94% a year earlier. The rate on these loans adjusts annually.

-- E. Scott Reckard