Mortgage Rates Down This Week; 30-Year Fixed At 5.2% -Freddie

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Mortgage rates fell again this week, but the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages remained above 5%, according to Freddie Mac's (FRE) weekly survey of mortgage rates.

Mortgage rates had fallen earlier this year as providers try to entice buyers amid the housing market downturn, but yields on Treasurys jumped in the spring, helping push mortgage rates higher.

Those yields have backtracked the past several weeks, with Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft noting that helped the 30-year fixed rate fall to the lowest level in six weeks. The latest rate declines were also due in part to market concerns about a weakening labor market after the June jobs report.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.2% for the week ended Thursday, down from last week's 5.32% average and 6.37% a year ago. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages were 4.69%, down from 4.77% last week and 5.91% a year earlier.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.82%, down from 4.88% and 5.82%, respectively. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 4.82%, down from 4.94% and 5.17%, respectively.

To obtain the rates, the fixed-rate mortgages required payment of an average 0.7 point and the adjustable-rate mortgages required an average 0.6 point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

-By Kerry Grace Benn, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2353; [e-mail]