3.32: Rates Drop Slightly, Stay Near Historic Lows

• December 13, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

Rates dropped very slightly this week, almost touching the historic record low of 3.31 percent.

On Thursday morning, Freddie Mac reported 3.32 percent with an average 0.7 point as the average on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Rates dropped slightly from last week’s average of 3.34 percent.

From Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft:

Mortgage rates held relatively steady following the November employment report. Although 146,000 jobs were created, above the market consensus forecast of 85,000, revisions subtracted 49,000 workers over the September and October period. The unemployment rate fell from 7.9 to 7.7 percent. However, in its December 12 monetary policy statement, the Federal Reserve (Fed) noted that this rate remains elevated and modified the statement to tie any increases to its target rate to the unemployment rate falling below 6.5 percent. The latest Fed central-tendency forecast is for unemployment to be between 7.4 and 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and between 6.8 and 7.3 percent by late 2014.

The UrbanTurf Mortgage Rate Disclaimer: The rates reported by Freddie Mac for 30-year mortgages are usually the best rates that the most qualified borrowers can get, so borrowers or those considering refinancing should not necessarily read this news and think that they can go out and get a loan with the quoted interest rate.

Here’s a look at the path of rates since January 2010:

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/3.32_rates_drop_slightly_stay_near_historic_lows/6441