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Mortgage Rates Drop Below 4 Percent for the Fourth Time

  • December 8th 2011

by Shilpi Paul

Mortgage Rates Drop Below 4 Percent for the Fourth Time: Figure 1

Mortgage rates dropped ever so slightly this week with Freddie Mac reporting 3.99 percent with an average 0.7 of a point as the average on 30-year fixed mortgages this morning. Rates have been hovering near 4 percent for the past four weeks and have dropped below 4 percent four times since October 2011.

From Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist:

Low rates and home prices have pushed housing affordability to record highs this year. The National Housing Affordability Index, which dates back to 1971, reached another all-time record high in October for the sixth time in 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors®. This level of affordability likely contributed to the rise in conventional mortgage applications for home purchases over the week of December 2nd to the most in nearly a year.

Here’s a look at the path of rates since last January:

Mortgage Rates Drop Below 4 Percent for the Fourth Time: Figure 2

See other articles related to: freddie mac, interest rates, mortgage rates

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/mortgage_rates_drop_below_4_for_the_fourth_time/4734.

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