NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Rates for long-term mortgages fell this week, setting more new lows, mortgage lender Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year mortgage averaged 5.98 percent in the week ending Oct. 11, with an average of 0.6 of a point payable up front to the lender. The rate fell from an average 6.01 percent last week and remained below its 6.58 percent average a year ago.
The rate is at its lowest point since Freddie Mac began tracking the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage 31 years ago.
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The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.34 percent, the lowest since the mortgage lender began recording it in 1991, and was down from 5.40 percent last week and from 6.06 percent last year. The 15-year mortgage averaged 0.6 of a point payable up front to the lender.
One-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), loosely indexed to the 10-year Treasury note, averaged 4.23 percent with an average 0.6 of a point due up front, down from last week's 4.29 percent average. A year ago the one-year ARM averaged 5.26 percent.
"Although the economy in the final quarter of 2002 looks to be weaker than the third quarter, the housing sector still radiates vitality and vigor," said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. "We continue to see new records being set, both in the low cost of mortgages and the volume of business carried out this year."
Freddie Mac's average mortgage rates are based on a survey of 125 lenders nationwide. The rates include those on mortgages accepted by borrowers with good credit ratings who place a 20 percent down payment on their homes, according to Freddie Mac. The total amount of each mortgage considered for the survey doesn't exceed a $300,700 limit.
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Freddie Mac (FRE: up $1.06 to $55.04, Research, Estimates), or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., is a publicly traded company the government established in 1970 to provide a flow of funds to mortgage lenders. It buys mortgages from banks, bundles them and then resells them as mortgage-backed securities.
Its products, and the products of other similar entities, have become increasingly popular as an alternative to government-backed bonds, particularly with international investors.
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