30 Year Mortgage Rate At All Time Record Low For Four Consecutive Weeks
Freddie Mac’s recent Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 3.78 percent yesterday, a slim drop from the averaged 30-year fixed-rate mortgage of last week which was 3.79 percent.In the meantime, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged from last week’s average 15-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.04 percent, this according to Freddie Mac.”Mortgage rates were virtually unchanged this week with fixed-rate loans remaining at record lows and helping to drive homebuyer affordability,” Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist of Freddie Mac, in a statement said.Two home affordability indexes, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index and National Association of Realtors (NAR) Housing Affordability Index, show record high home affordability in the U.S.The home affordability index of the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo shows that 77.5 percent of the existing and new homes that were sold in the nation from January to March this year were affordable to families earning the national median income of $65,000.
The composite quarterly housing affordability index of NAR, meanwhile, shows that the housing affordability index jumped to 205.9 in January to March of this year.NAR reported that this is the first time that the composite quarterly housing affordability index hit the 200 mark since 1970, the start of housing affordability index recordkeeping.NAR’s index is based on the relationship of these three factors: median home price, average mortgage interest rate and median family income.”For those with good credit, we’ve never seen better housing affordability conditions or market opportunities than we see at present,” NAR President Moe Veissi, in a statement said.Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, in a statement said, “Homes in this year’s first quarter were more affordable than they have been at any time in more than 20 years, yet many potential sales are not happening because of overly tight lending conditions that are keeping hardworking families from obtaining a suitable mortgage.”The chairman of the National Association of Home Builders added, “Without this (tight lending condition) significant hurdle, the housing and economic recovery could be proceeding at a much stronger pace.”