3.49: Rates Break Through Another Barrier

• July 26, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

Yet again, mortgage rates dropped to an all-time record low this week.

This morning, Freddie Mac reported 3.49 percent with an average 0.7 point as the average on a 30-year fixed mortgage. With the exception of one week, rates have been below 4 percent for all of 2012.

From Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist Frank Nothaft:

Market concerns over the strength of the economic recovery brought long-term Treasury yields to new lows this week allowing fixed mortgage rates to reach record levels. Existing home sales fell to 4.36 million homes (annualized) in June and represented the slowest pace since October 2011. Similarly, new home sales fell in June to their lowest level since January of this year.

Earlier this week, Diana Olick of CNBC investigated the possibility of mortgage rates dropping to 3 percent, and asked a number of real estate professionals when that might happen.

From CNBC:

Dan Green, loan officer and mortgage blogger with Waterstone Mortgage in Cincinnati expects the rate to hit 3 percent. “There’s a case for them to be at 3 percent now. It’s just that lenders are overworked with new applications, so there’s little reason to get price competitive,” says Green. He agrees that 3 percent would just push more borrowers to refinance, even if they already did so recently.

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/3.49_rates_break_through_another_barrier/5823