30-year mortgage rate average down to 6.01%

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(05-17) 04:00 PDT American Capital - --
Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last hebdomad to their last point in a month, a topographic point of welcome news to would-be home buyers.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.01 percentage for the hebdomad ending Thursday. That was down from the former week's 6.05 percentage and was the last since mid-April, when rates averaged 5.88 percent.

Other rates also fell.

Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages dropped to 5.57 percent, from 5.67 percentage in the former week. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages drop to 5.18 percent, compared with 5.29 percent.

However, rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages held steady at 5.6 percentage last week.

Rates on the other types of mortgages dipped, reflecting hope on the portion of investors that a recovery could be in sight for fiscal markets, which have got been gripped by turbulency since last summer. Earlier last week, Federal Soldier Modesty President Ben Bernanke said the disturbance have eased somewhat but the state of affairs is still fragile.

"Recent comments by Federal Soldier Modesty officials, which partly bolstered optimism that fiscal marketplaces will retrieve later this year, helped mortgage rates ease up a small (last) week," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's head economist. In addition, investors also took comfortableness in recent barometers indicating that unsafe rising prices is not taking hold, another factor helping easiness mortgage rates, Nothaft said.

The moderateness in some mortgage rates supplies a dose of good news for prospective place buyers, some of whom also may be facing a state of affairs of harder-to-get credit. But the moderation in mortgage rates doesn't change housing's overall weak picture. Gross Sales stay mired in a slack as are place prices.

"The underside line is that building disbursement and house terms look likely to go on to worsen well into 2009," Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Soldier Modesty Depository Financial Institution of San Francisco, said in a address last week.

The mortgage rates make not include points. The countrywide norm fee for one-year adjustable-rate mortgages was 0.7 of a point. For 30-year and five-year adjustable-rate mortgages, the countrywide norm fee was 0.6 of a point. And, the norm fee for 15-year mortgages was 0.5 of a point.

A twelvemonth ago, rates on 30-year mortgages stood at 6.15 percent, 15-year mortgage rates averaged 5.87 percent, five-year adjustable-rate mortgages were also at 5.89 percentage and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages were at 5.48 percent.