Good news to all home buyers!
Mortgage rates drop anew as home sales improve according to the most recent Freddie Mac Survey, reports the Realtor.com. The survey reveals that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates averaged 3.69% this week, a drop from 3.78% recorded mean mortgage rates last week.
It was also relatively lower from the reported mortgages rates of 4.4% this time last year, according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey by Freddie Mac.
Realtor.com generalizes that all news pertaining to the housing market have been favorable to the consumers this week. Existing home sales and new-home sales showed a jump along with the latest news of lower mortgage rates.
The recorded existing-home sales went up by 1.2% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million units, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors. Although it was still below the historically expected rate of about 4.7%, the rate is still higher than last year.
On the other hand, new home sales -- or sales from newly-constructed homes -- have exceeded economists' predictions and yielded a 7.8% increase in February compared to January of this year. It has even hit a 7-year high record, according to CNBC.
However, it could also be possible that home buyers are purchasing now because as soon as the spring selling season starts, the mortgage rates may also show an increase, says industry experts.
"Low mortgage rates are a welcome sign for those in the market to buy a home this spring season and will help to support home buyer affordability," Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist said, notes Realtor.com.
According to Freddie Mac, we have experience rates lower than 4% since the week of Nov 10, 2011, because of the action of the Federal Reserve. Home buyers have become comfortable with these low rates since then, with only occasional minor fluctuations. The Federal Reserve, however, has announced that this may not be the trend anymore as it will not continue holding down interest rates, as told by Realtor.com. Thus, experts say that rates will soon increase this summer.
The reported data on other rates are as follows:
The average 15-year fixed rate mortgage also decreased to 2.97% this week from 3.06% FRM last week. The 15-year mean FRM was 3.42% a year ago this time.
The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage dropped to 2.92% this week against the rate of 2.97% last week. It was 3.1% last years, this time.
The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM, however, remained at 2.46% this week, still higher than last year's 2.44% this time.
