By Dees Stribling | Multihousing News
Mortgage interest rates spiked unexpectedly a few weeks ago and have been easing off since. Freddie Mac released its most recent Primary Mortgage Market Survey on Thursday, showing that average fixed mortgage rates dropped for the second consecutive week.
According to the GSE, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.31 percent (plus an average 0.8 points) for the week ending July 25, 2013, down from last week when it averaged 4.37 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.49 percent. Also, 15-year rates this week averaged 3.39 percent, down from 3.41 percent last week.
“Mortgage rates eased for the second consecutive week, which should help to alleviate market concerns of a slowdown in the housing market,” noted Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft in a press statement. “Thus far, existing home sales for June were the second highest since November 2009 and new home sales were the strongest since May 2008.
