Mortgage Rates Reach Record Lows Again

By Liz Clinger Updated on 5/17/2012

For the third week in a row, FRM rates continued to decline to all-time lows. For the week ending Thursday, the Freddie Mac survey shows 30-year fixed rate mortgages hit the lowest rate ever recorded, averaging 3.79% which is a 0.04% decrease from last week’s average and 0.82% decrease from this time last year, which averaged 4.61%.

15-year fixed rate mortgage rates declined only 0.01% to reach 3.04% under last week’s 3.05%, and is 0.75% lower than the average for this time last year at 3.80%.

Some adjustable rate mortgages did see an increase in rates, as the 1-year treasury indexed hybrid adjustable rate mortgages increased 0.05% to 2.78% over last week’s 2.73% though still lower then this time last year, where the average was 3.15%. 5-year treasury indexed hybrid ARMs raised 0.02% reaching an average of 2.83% from last week’s 2.81% average, though still down 0.65% from last year’s average at this time, which was 3.48%.

Bankrate, a home loan analytics firm who surveys large banks, reports 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates decreased from last week’s 4.02% to 3.97%, though 15-year fixed rate mortgage rates held last week’s average at 3.2% and 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage showed a 0.01% decrease from last week’s average of 3.1% to 3.0%.