Tuesday, May 15, 2007

30-year mortgage rates edge down

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.15% for the week ending Thursday, May 10, according to Freddie Mac. A slight decline from last week’s 6.16% and even closer to this year’s lowest rate of 6.14%, reached in early March. At this time last year, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were at 6.58%.

The decline was attributed to a weak employment report for April, which showed that a mere 88,000 jobs were created, the lowest level of growth since November 2004. Employment reports for the two previous months were revised downwards. Weak economic data, however, helped ease fears of climbing inflation, which drove interest rates down.

15-year fixed-rate mortgages carried the same interest as last week, 5.87%, while the five-year and one-year adjustable-rate mortgages edged higher, to 5.89% and 5.48% respectively.

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