• 
• See all for MortgageLoan.com
• View Print Version

• Mortgage Rate Forecast
• What Determines Your Mortgage Rate?
• What Kind of Interest Rate Can You Expect?

Mortgage rates continued to cool off this week, sliding back toward near-record lows according to the weekly Freddie Mac rate survey.

Average interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans, the most common type of mortgage, fell to 3.55 percent, down from 3.59 percent last week. Interest rates on 15-year fixed-rate loans, popular with borrowers who are refinancing, held steady at 2.86 percent.

Initial rates on 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) retreated to 2.75 percent, down from 2.78 percent last week.

It was the second straight week of overall declines in rates, after several weeks in which rates appeared to have finally reversed their long downward trend. All three rates hit record lows in July, when 30-year mortgages were at 3.49 percent, 15-year loans reached 2.80 percent and 5-year ARMs bottomed out at 2.69 percent.

Refinance demand falling

Demand for mortgage refinancing has been trending downward during that time, according to figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), even though the change in rates has been relatively small.

Applications for mortgages to buy a home have also been trending downward during that time but at a slower pace than refinance applications, according to the MBA, but are still running 1 percent ahead of the same week one year ago. Demand for purchase applications is less sensitive to fluctuations in mortgage rates than refinance applications are, due to the lead time needed to find and purchase a home.

Currently, nearly four out of five (79 percent) of all mortgage applications are to refinance an existing mortgage, with 21 percent for home purchases, a ratio that has held fairly steady the past couple of years.

First published at: http://www.mortgageloan.com/mortgage-rates-cool-9230

Related Banking and Loans Articles

• 
  7 money moves for an improving economy
  6/14/2013 03:29 AM
• 
  Tepid job growth cools the outlook for deposits
  6/14/2013 03:29 AM
• 
  4 signs you shouldn't cosign that student loan
  6/13/2013 03:29 AM