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Freddie, Bankrate: Mortgage rates drop sharply

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — Mortgage rates didn’t just fall over the past week. They fall rather sharply, due in large measure to last week’s disappointing jobs report.

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey found the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropping to 3.56 percent with 0.7 point from last week’s 3.62 percent. The 30-year has been below 4.0 percent for 16 consecutive weeks.

Bankrate’s national mortgage survey found the 30-year dropping even more sharply, to 3.79 percent with 0.40 point from 3.79 percent a week ago.

"Following a lackluster employment report for June, long-term U.S. Treasury bond yields eased somewhat this week allowing fixed mortgage rates to reach yet another record low,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said. “Only 80,000 net new jobs were added to the economy last month, not enough to lower the unemployment rate from 8.2 percent.”

Nothaft also cited Federal Reserve minutes that the slow pace of job creation is a concern to board governors, yet there was not enough support for further efforts to stimulate the economy.

Bankrate also cited the ongoing debt crisis in Europe as also influencing the downward movement of interest rates.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage also dropped, to 2.86 percent with 0.7 point from 2.89 percent a week ago, according to Freddie Mac; Bankrate put the 15-year at 3.05 percent with 0.35 point, down from 3.13 percent a week ago.