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Personal Finance > Your Home
Mortgage rates dip again
December 7, 2000: 5:16 p.m. ET

Rates react to economic slowdown by hitting new 17-month lows
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Mortgage rates dipped for the second week, reaching their lowest level in 17 months.

Rates reacted favorably to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's remarks earlier this week of a slowing U.S. economy.

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 7.54 percent for the week ending Dec. 8, its lowest level in 17 months and down from last week's average of 7.65 percent. A year ago, the same mortgage averaged 7.84 percent.

The average this week for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.19 percent, its lowest in 17 months, down from the previous week's average at 7.35 percent. A year ago, the same rate stood at 7.45 percent.

One-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) this week averaged 7.21 percent, down from last week's average of 7.24 percent. The same mortgage averaged 6.45 percent this time last year.

[Click here to see a breakdown of U.S. mortgage rates by region.]

Greenspan's admission of an economic slowdown could be a hint that the Fed may be ready to lower interest rates, said  Robert Van Order, chief economist for Freddie Mac. "This perception, in turn caused mortgage rates to drop to their current lows," said Van Order.

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  Depending on the employment figures to be released tomorrow, mortgage rates could very well be even lower next week.  
     
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  Robert Van Order
Freedie Mac
 
"And over the last few days rates have continued to move lower. Depending on the employment figures to be released tomorrow, mortgage rates could very well be even lower next week."

Freddie Mac (FRE: Research, Estimates), or Federal Home 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. graphic

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.