Mortgage Rate Down 6th Week

Evidences and data pointing to cooling of housing market and sliding consumer confidence led to lower mortgage rates this week. The rate is down for the 6th week in a row. The financial markets are speculating that economic growth will moderate and inflation will remain in check and the Fed will not hike the short time rate in its next meeting on September 20th.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.44% in the week that ended today -- down from its 6.48% average last week. At this time last year, the loan averaged 5.71%. The 15-year fixed rate averaged at 6.14% this week, again a fall from last week's 6.18%. At this time last year this rate was 5.32%.

Rate for 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) averaged at 6.11% decreasing from last week's 6.14%. This rate averaged 5.30% a year ago. The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs have an average rate of 5.59%, slightly down from last week's rate of 5.60%. At this time in 2005, the 1-year ARM averaged only 4.48%.