Mortgage rates hold below year-ago levels

Mortgage rates were mostly flat in the week ending Thursday, as mixed economic news kept rate movements in check, Freddie Mac said.

The national average interest rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.24%, unchanged from last week. The mortgage carried that same interest rate a year ago and is at its lowest point since May 17. One-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate loans were also unchanged at 5.50%.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.88%, down from 5.90% a week ago. Last year at this time the loan averaged 5.94%. The five-year, Treasury-indexed hybrid mortgage rose to 5.96% from 5.89%. A year ago that loan averaged 6.04%.

The two fixed-rate loans and the hybrid mortgage required the payment of an average 0.4 point to achieve the rate; the ARM needed 0.5 point. A point is 1% of the loan amount, charged as prepaid interest.

"Higher productivity growth in the third quarter coupled with a larger-than-expected decline in consumer confidence in November sent mixed signals to the current state of the economy," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist. "As a result, there were no definite upward or downward pressures on mortgage rates this week."

"On a positive note, the National Association of Realtors reported this week an unexpected 0.2 percent gain in September's pending home sales index, which suggests less of a decline in existing home sales for October and November. That said, however, it should be noted the index is still 24% below that in December 2006."

Source: Steve Kerch, MarketWatch

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