Mortgage Rates Decline to 31-Year Low

Mortgage rates, already at a three-decade low, fell a bit further this week. The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 6.64% from 6.66%, Freddie Mac said. It has fallen more than a quarter percentage point over the last four weeks and is down two-thirds of a point from a year ago. This week’s rate is the lowest since the company began compiling the average in 1971. Separate records kept by the now-defunct Federal Home Loan Bank Board show rates haven’t been lower in 31 years. Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, averaged 6.32% this week, down from 6.35% and the lowest since October 1993. On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.42%, down from 5.43% and the lowest since March 1996. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points.