Mortgage Rates Fall to 23-Month Low

The average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages declined from 7.03% last week to 6.94%, matching a low hit in February 1996, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said. A further decline would take the rate toward the territory last reached in October 1993, when it hit what was then a 25-year low of 6.74%. Thirty-year mortgage rates hit a peak for 1997 of 8.18% in early April, after the Fed last tightened monetary policy. Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, averaged 6.55% this week, also a 23-month low and down from 6.61%. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.50%, the same as last week. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.