Mortgage rates came down a little this week. We are still not back down to the levels we saw two weeks ago. 30 year rates fell from 5.25 to 5.16. This is a little higher than the 5.10 we saw two weeks ago and .2 points higher than the 4.96 we saw 4 weeks ago. But to put this all in perspective if we neglect the last month 5.16 is still one of the lowest rates we have seen in over 40 years.
One point of confusion is that when looking at average rates people relate it to a rate a friend or colleague got a few weeks ago. For instance if you had a friend that got a rate of 4.3 last week and see rates are at 5.16 you might think you really missed the boat. But 4.3 is lower than anything that has been officially published. Often these rates are down to paying more points to drive down the interest rate or they might be due to a special deal for instance a University offering professors a special rate. All this is to say if you have a friend that got a rate below 4.5 a few weeks ago don't fret you should be able to a similar rate today that is only slightly higher. Below are rates for the last few weeks. The rates on January 15th mark the lowest rates we have seen in 40 years and easily the lowest rates of the year.
Feb 12, 2009
30-yr 5.16 15-yr 4.81 5-yr ARM 5.23 1-yr ARM 4.94
Feb 05, 2009
30-yr 5.25 15-yr 4.92 5-yr ARM 5.26 1-yr ARM 4.92
Jan 29, 2009
30-yr 5.10 15-yr 4.80 5-yr ARM 5.27 1-yr ARM 4.90
Jan 22, 2009
30-yr 5.12 15-yr 4.80 5-yr ARM 5.24 1-yr ARM 4.92
Jan 15, 2009
30-yr 4.96 15-yr 4.65 5-yr ARM 5.25 1-yr ARM 4.89
Besides the drop in the 30 year rate we also saw a similar drop with the 15 year fixed rate. Both the 5 year arm and the 1 arm stayed mostly steady. Looking at rates is interesting but we like to translate it into mortgage payments. We took today's rates and translated them into a mortgage payment on a 200k loan. We did the same thing with rates from a week ago. We also looked at what the mortgage payment would be based on rates from January 15th (the lowest rates so far).
Feb 12
30-yr 1093.28
15-yr 1561.86
5-yr ARM 1101.93
1-yr ARM 1066.32
Feb 05
30-yr 1104.4
15-yr 1573.26
5-yr ARM 1105.64
1-yr ARM 1063.88
Jan 15
30-yr 1068.75
15-yr 1545.36
5-yr ARM 1104.4
1-yr ARM 1060.23
Looking at the 30 year rate we notice that while today's payment would be higher than what one would have paid based on January 15th rates its not that much higher. If we look back a few months ago to October 30th when rates were at 6.46 the potential payment on a 200k mortgage would be $1258.87. All this is to say that rates have come up recently but all in all they are still low to what we have seen over the last several years.
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