Mortgage Rates Hit All-Time Lows
June 24, 2010
Nixon was in his first term, the Watergate break-in had yet to occur, the TV show All in the Family made its debut, and the US median family income hit $10,290.
The year was 1971--the last time mortgage rates were as low as they were in the recent week ending June 24, when average 30-year fixed mortgage rates dropped to 4.69%, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey.
All mortgage rates, except for traditional 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), have hit all-time record lows. Freddie Mac began collecting rate date for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in April 1971 for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages in September 1991 and 5-year hybrid ARMs in January 2005.
The 30-year fixed rate was down more than a half percentage point from the year-ago average of 5.42% and down less than a tenth of a percentage point from the previous week's rate of 4.75%.
Record-Breaking Mortgage Rates
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.13%, down from last week's 4.20% and the year-ago average of 4.87%. The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid ARM averaged 3.84%, down from the previous week's 3.89% and the year-ago level of 4.99%.
The average 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM was 3.77%, down from the previous week's average of 3.82% and the year-ago average of 4.93%. It was the lowest level of the 1-year ARM since since the week ending May 6, 2004, when it averaged 3.76%. The record low for traditional 1-year ARMs of 3.36% occurred the week of March 25, 2004, Freddie Mac said.
The survey results come on the heels of reports showing unexpectedly sluggish home sales. Existing-home sales fell 2.2% in May over April, according to the National Association of Realtors--a decline that surprised most economists. And new-home sales plunged 32.7%, to an annualized rate of 300,000 units--the largest monthly drop and slowest pace since 1963 when such records began, according to the US Census Bureau.
