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Mortgage Interest Rates Drift a Bit Lower
Mortgage interest rates declined slightly last week for the second week in a row, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, and the company’s chief economist, Frank Nothaft, said that he was beginning to see at least an inkling of good news, with some signs of market stabilization.
For the week ending on Aug. 2, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.68%, down from 6.69% the previous week, but a bit higher than the average 6.63% reported for the same week one year earlier.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.32% for the week, down from 6.37% the week before but up from 6.27% a year earlier.
Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 6.29% for the week ending Aug. 2, down from 6.30% during the previous week and up just a tad from 6.27% a year earlier.
One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.59% for the week, down from an average of 5.69% the previous week and below the 5.69% average of a year earlier.
“Market investors seeking safety from the subprime fallout bought Treasury securities, pushing bond yields down and allowing mortgage rates to drift a bit lower,” said Nothaft.
Although sales of new and existing homes were both down in June and prices are continuing to weaken, especially in the markets registering the biggest gains during the recent housing boom, “there are early signs that the market is stabilizing,” Nothaft said.
“As construction spending levels off, the drag on GDP growth will continue to diminish,” he said. “Meanwhile, the 5% rise in pending home sales in June suggests that series in July and August may reverse last month’s decline.”
 Attend the Fall Construction Forecast Conference in October
Plan to attend NAHB's Construction Forecast Conference on Oct. 24 at the National Housing Center in Washington, D.C. The conference brings together the nation's premier housing economists and finance experts for an in-depth examination of the economic outlook for the housing industry.
Register by Sept. 7 and save $50 off the regular registration fee.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org/cfc.
 Want to Know the Housing Forecast for the Top 100 Metros?
Find out in HousingEconomic.com’s 2007-2008 Metro Forecast (free preview). Get the metro forecast with in-depth analysis, overviews and downloadable Excel tables.
To learn more, visit www.HousingEconomics.com.
 NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market
With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into next year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment.
To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar.
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