Mortgage rates still falling

Interest rates on long-term mortgages fell again this week and remain at the lowest levels since Freddie Mac started keeping track.

A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to an average 4.36 percent in the week ending Aug. 26, down from 4.42 percent last week. A year ago, 30-year mortgages averaged 5.14 percent. The average rate on the increasingly popular 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.86 percent, down from 3.9 percent last week, the Washington Business Journal reported.

A one-year adjustable rate mortgage averaged 3.52 percent this week, down from 3.53 percent.

Reports this week showed significant declines in sales of both new and existing homes in July, but Freddie Mac suggests the homebuyer tax credit, which ended in June, has altered normal buying patterns by pulling future home purchases into the first half of the year.

“For instance, average home sales over the first seven months of 2010 were nearly 8 percent higher than over the same period a year ago,” said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft.

via Cincinnati Business Courier