The 30-year fixed-rate average held steady at 2.71 percent. It hasn't been above 3 percent since July.
A week after mortgage rates swooned to a historic low for the 14th time this year, they paused to catch their breath. (Hannah Agosta for The Washington Post)
According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average was unchanged at 2.71 percent with an average 0.7 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount and are in addition to the interest rate.) It was 3.73 percent a year ago.
Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage investor, aggregates rates from around 80 lenders across the country to come up with weekly national average mortgage rates. It uses rates for high-quality borrowers with strong credit scores and large down payments. These rates are not available to every borrower.
Because the survey is based on home purchase mortgages, rates for refinances may be different. This is especially true since the price adjustment for refinance transactions went into effect earlier this month. The adjustment is 0.5 percent of the loan amount (e.g., it is $1,500 on a $300,000 loan) and applies to all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinances.
The 15-year fixed-rate average also held steady at 2.26 percent with an average 0.6 point. It was 3.19 percent a year ago. The five-year adjustable rate average slid to 2.79 percent with an average 0.3 point. It was 2.86 percent a week ago and 3.36 percent a year ago.
“Mortgage rates remain at record lows, resisting their typical correlation to Treasury yields, which have recently been moving higher,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement. “Mortgage spreads — the difference between mortgage rates and the 10-year Treasury rate — are declining from their elevated levels earlier this year. Although today’s mortgage spread is about 1.8 percent and still has some room to move down if the 10-year Treasury continues to rise, it’s encouraging to see that the spread is almost back to normal levels.”
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