Mortgage Rates Continue Slide

Surveys released by ""Bankrate"":http://www.bankrate.com and ""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com on Thursday confirm a continuing slide in fixed and adjustable mortgage rates, with analysts attributing the declines to news about weak job growth.
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Figures in Freddie Mac's ""Primary Mortgage Market Survey"":http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/ trended alongside those in ""Bankrate's weekly survey"":http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/mortgages-tumble-to-7-month-low.aspx?ic_id=tsThumb1 to reveal a decline for 30-year fixed-rate averages to 4.49 percent, with a 0.7 point, and 4.65 percent, with a 0.39 point, respectively.

Those numbers are down several decimal points from higher averages for last week, which carried the 30-year fixed averages at 4.55 percent and 4.69 percent, according to the data.

Bankrate claimed that its findings reflected a straight nine-week fall for mortgage rates, made more unstable by restive housing markets and long-term government debt.

Both surveys showed 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averages bottoming out at an eight-month low, with Bankrate reporting 3.79 percent, down from 3.88 percent

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last week. Freddie Mac said that the fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.68 percent, falling from 3.74 percent in the same period.

Freddie Mac reported the numbers for five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) falling somewhat more precipitously, dropping from 3.41 percent last week to 3.28 percent this week with a 0.5 point. Bankrate's survey reflected similar trends with a 3.79 percent decline, alongside a 0.37 point, from 3.88 percent last week.

Bankrate reported the same averages for its one-year ARM, while Freddie's data signaled a sharp decline to 2.95 percent, with a 0.5 point, down from 3.13 percent last week.

Freddie Mac based the survey results on data that it collected from about 125 lenders nationwide. Bankrate collected information for its survey from the top 10 banks and thrifts in the top U.S. markets.

Analysts placed blame for the declines in mortgage rates on a weaker-than-anticipated jobs report last Friday, which cast the economy as one suffering from slow recovery.

""Long-term Treasury yields moved lower following a weak jobs report and mortgage rates followed suit. The economy added 54,000 jobs in May, the fewest in eight months, and factories cut payrolls for the first time in seven months,"" said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's VP and chief economist. ""As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent, representing the highest rate since December.""

Nothaft added that housing markets continued to experience fragility, citing information that the Federal Reserve published in its ""Beige Book"":https://themreport.com/articles/fed-residential-real-estate-weak-commercial-market-improving-2011-06-08.