For ninth straight week, 30-year mortgage rates reach record low

Mortgage interest rates continued to drop over the past week, reaching new record lows, according to data from Freddie Mac through Aug. 19. The popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.42 percent, down from 4.44 percent last week and 5.12 percent one year ago at this time. It was the ninth week in a row that the 30-year mortgage has either met or set a new record low, said Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist for Freddie Mac. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage’s average interest rate also dropped to 3.9 percent from last week’s 3.92 percent. During the same week last year, the 15-year mortgage averaged 4.56 percent. Meanwhile, the five-year and one-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages remained unchanged, with 3.56 percent and 3.53 percent average interest rates, respectively. “Investors in long-term bonds appear very confident that inflation will remain in check, and as a result long-term fixed mortgage rates have continued to fall,” Cutts said. TRD