Friday, May 9, 2008

Weekly Mortgage Rates Remain Virtually Unchanged

Average 30-year Fixed-Rate Mortgage over 52 weeks

Last Week
30 year fixed 6.16%
Last Year
30 Year Fixed 6.06%

"Despite a weak housing market, mortgage rates remained almost unchanged this week based on better-than-expected economic data releases that indicated the economy still has some staying power," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

"Job losses lessened in April and conditions in both the manufacturing and service industry outperformed market forecasts. Worker productivity also rose in the first quarter as increases in labor costs diminished.

"The housing market is still struggling amid falling house prices and stricter lending standards. Coupled with higher delinquency and foreclosure rates, a smaller share of families own their homes this year.

“The national homeownership rate held at 67.8 percent in the first quarter of 2008, down from its recent peak of 69.0 percent in the third quarter of 2006 and was the lowest rate since 67.6 percent in the second quarter of 2002, according to the Census Bureau."


From the mortgage ledger

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