Mortgage Rate Remains Flat

The mortgage market failed to get a definite direction in this week ending Thursday due to conflicting economic news from various sectors. The economy added 97,000 jobs in February, in line with consensus expectations, while the unemployment rate dipped to 4.5%. But the retail sales grew a meagre 0.1% in February, falling short of the predicted value of 0.3% gain.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged at 6.14%, also the average of last week. The rate was 6.34% one year back. The 15-year fixed rate averaged at 5.88% this week -- slightly up from last week's average of 5.86%. At this time last year this rate was 5.98%.

The Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) also did not change from last week's average of 5.90%. The hybrid averaged 5.93% a year ago. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.42%, down from 5.47% of last week. This rate averaged 5.37% a year ago.