Mortgage Rates Fall for 5th Straight Week

Inman News

6 February 2014

Mortgage rates fell for the fifth straight week, following the release of weak housing data, Freddie Mac reports.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.23 percent with an average point of 0.7 for the week ending Feb. 6, down from 4.32 percent last week but up from 3.53 percent a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans and one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs also all fell this week.

Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac, noted recent lackluster economic data that may have helped drive down rates.

“The pending home sales index fell 8.7 percent in December to its lowest level since October 2011,” he said. “Fixed residential investment negatively contributed to GDP in the fourth quarter for the first time since the third quarter of 2010.”

Source: Freddie Mac