NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Mortgage rates started the new year without much of a bang, mostly edging lower in the latest week.

The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 6.21 percent, a hint lower from last week's 6.22 percent, a Freddie Mac survey said.

Mortgage Rates 30 yr fixed 3.80% 15 yr fixed 3.20% 5/1 ARM 3.84% 30 yr refi 3.82% 15 yr refi 3.20% Find personalized rates:   Rates provided by Bankrate.com.

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In the year-ago period, the 30-year mortgage averaged 5.77 percent.

The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages was unchanged from last week's average at 5.76 percent. A year ago, the loan averaged 5.21 percent.

Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.78 percent, down slightly from 5.79 percent the previous week. In the year-ago period, the five-year averaged 5.03 percent.

One-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 5.16 percent, compared to 5.15 percent from the week before. At this time last year, the one-year loan averaged 4.10 percent.

"Financial markets paused this week, trying to decipher the December minutes of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee, which seemed to hint that the Fed might slow the pace of rate hikes in 2006," Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement.

"The interest rate savings between 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell about 0.6 percentage points to around one percentage point since the same time last year. This will likely slow ARM lending activity in 2006," he added.

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