Fixed-mortgage rates remained mostly unchanged from the previous week after posting declines, Freddie Mac said in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage for the week ending March 7 rose to 3.52%, up from 3.51% a week earlier, but down from 3.88% last year.
The 15-year, FRM averaged 2.76%, the same as last week, but down from 3.13% a year ago.
Meanwhile, the 5-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.63% this week, up from 2.61% last week, but down from 2.81% a year earlier.
Additionally, the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.63%, down from 2.64% a week ago and a drop from 2.73% last year.
“With gross domestic product growing only 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2012, inflation remains at bay and consequently mortgage rates low. In fact, the price index of personal consumption expenditures rose only 0.1% in January which was below the market consensus forecast,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac.
He added, “Moreover, these low mortgage rates are helping to revive the housing market. For instance the CoreLogic Home Price Index rose 9.7% between January 2012 and 2013, marking the largest annual increase since April 2006.”
Bankrate data also shows mortgage rates mostly unchanged from last week.
Bankrate’s 30-year, FRM remained unchanged at 3.73% from a week earlier.
In addition, the 15-year, FRM also remained steady at 2.96% from last week and the 5/1 ARM stayed steady at 2.68%.
