September 3, 2008

Freddie Mac Update: Rates Drift Lower on Reports of Economic Weakness

Other Reports Point to Progress IN Housing Market

McLean, VA Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.40 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending August 21, 2008, down from last week when it averaged 6.47 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.67 percent.

30-year fixed-rate mortgage:
Averaged 6.40 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending August 21, 2008, down from last week when it averaged 6.47 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.67 percent.


The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 5.93 percent with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 6.00 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.12 percent.

Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages ARMs: Averaged 6.03 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 5.99 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 6.35 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARM: Averaged 5.33 percent this week with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.29 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.84 percent.

Commentary

Freddie Mac notes: The housing front is providing some encouraging signs. The pace of home price declines slowed down for the fourth straight month in June and the number of metro areas exhibiting monthly gains rose from seven to nine, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller® 20-city composite index. There are also signs more buyers may be getting ready to return to the market. The Conference Board says the share of households planning to buy a home within six months is now at its highest level since March. At the same time, the supply for unsold new homes is down to 10.1 months, the lowest since February, as single-family existing homes (excluding condos and co-ops) start to sell more quickly. Although, when condos and co-ops are included, the resale inventory did edge up."

We think that its possible that the downward spiral is slowing for now. But there are other mrpotgage segments that are even bigger and showing signs of serious collapse. Scroll down to my blog just below this: How Long Will We See Declines: Try 2011. Im afraid there is much more to come. We may have to resort, as a nation, to the kind of creative accounting that the Japanese used during there huge real estate bubble.

Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell
www.yourpropertypath.com
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.

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