30-Year Mortgage Rates Hold at Record Lows

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.87 percent this week, matching last week’s all-time record low. As for other rates, they ticked up slightly this week, but still hovered around record lows compared to historical standards, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey.

“A strong January employment report added upward pressure to most mortgage rates this week,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent as the economy gained 243,000 jobs last month, the largest gain since April 2011.

Here’s a closer look at rates for the week ending Feb. 9:

•30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.87 percent, with an average 0.8 points. A year ago at this time, 30-year rates averaged 5.05 percent.
•15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.16 percent, with an average 0.7 point, rising slightly from last week’s record low of 3.14 percent. But 15-year rates were still far below what they averaged a year ago at this time — 4.29 percent.
•5-year adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.83 percent, with an average 0.7 point, rising from last week’s 2.80 percent average. Last year at this time, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.92 percent.
•1-year ARMs: averaged 2.78 percent, with an average 0.6 point, rising slightly from last week’s 2.76 percent average. A year ago, 1-year ARMs averaged 3.35 percent.
Source: Freddie Mac