U.S. Mortgage Rates Fall

U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac released its weekly report on the nation’s mortgage rates Thursday for the week ended May 5th. Freddie said the average rate for a 30 year, fixed-rate mortgage, the most popular type of U.S. home loan, was 4.71 percent, down from 4.78 percent in the previous week. Last year at this time, the aver 30 year rate was 5.00 percent.

To obtain the latest rate, payment of an average of 0.7 point was required. A point is defined as 1 percent of the total amount of the loan, charged in prepaid interest. Analysts said that the lower rates were a result of weak economic reports issued during the week, which caused Treasury bond yields to drop, leading to the lower rates, as rates track the yields of the Treasury-issued securities.

The average rate for a 15 year, fixed-rate mortgage during the week was 3.89 percent, down from 3.97 percent in the week prior, Freddie reported. Five year, treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate loans, meanwhile averaged 3.47 percent, down from 3.51 percent in the week before, while the average for a 1 year Treasury-indexed hybrid ARM fell from 3.15 percent to 3.14 percent.