Mortgage Rate Turned Lower

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate decreased for the first time since early March this week. The latest reports of moderation in inflation rates from the core producer price and consumer price indexes seem to be the catalyst behind this decline. Excluding food and energy, the core inflation rate for consumer prices rose 2.5% year-over-year, the smallest annual growth since May 2006.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage went down to 6.17% from last week's average of 6.22%. The rate was 6.53% one year back. The 15-year fixed rate averaged at 5.89% this week -- down slightly from last week's average of 5.90%. At this time last year this rate was 6.17%.

The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) also changed to 5.92% -- only a little bit from last week's average of 5.93%. The hybrid averaged 6.16% a year ago. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.45%, down from 5.47% of last week. This rate averaged 5.63% a year ago.