The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 5.66 percent this week, down from 5.87 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Last year at this time, the 30-year mortgage averaged 5.97 percent. This week’s average is the lowest since July, when it averaged 5.52 percent.
“Expecting job growth on the order of about 150,000 in December, financial markets were taken aback, to say the least, when those figures came in at only around a thousand new jobs,” said Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac deputy chief economist. “The lack luster employment report had a chilling effect on the market’s recent exuberance, causing mortgage rates to slide to this week’s low levels.
“Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Board continues to indicate it won’t make any rate changes anytime soon, and it looks like we’re moving from a job-loss recovery to an almost inflation-less recovery, thus insuring that mortgage rates will remain low and affordable.”