Freddie Mac unveiled yet more good mortgage news for borrowers on Friday in its weekly survey of average rates. The figure for a 30-year loan was 5.19 percent, which the Wall Street Journal says is the lowest since records began in 1971, 37 years ago. New 15-year mortgages were averaging 4.92 percent.

The Journal also pointed out that mortgages generally closely track long-term government notes, and that these are also continuing to decline. This means that there’s every reason to expect mortgage rates to continue their downward trend.

All of this positivity is translating into a much larger volume of mortgage applications. The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that these are up 37.3 percent up on the same week last year. However, refinancing represents 76.9 percent of all activity, which may not be quite such good news.

More on that soon.

Late yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, the Federal Reserve slashed its target for the overnight federal funds rate to a range of 0 to 0.25 percent. That may sound like meaningless gobbledygook, but it’s not. It’s an all-time record low. Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s mortgage news reflected something of a tug-of-war about what consumers should be doing in the face of the recession:

• Mortgage rates edged down yet again, with 30-year rates dropping to 5.47%
• Speculation was that the government would pursue policies to drive mortgage rates even lower
• Existing mortgages continued to experience trouble, as late payments and foreclosures rose to record territory in the third quarter
• Meanwhile, Americans worked to get control of their debts, as consumer debt levels fell on an absolute basis for the first time on record during the third quarter of 2008

The first two items reflect the hope that consumers can be induced to start borrowing enough to spend their way out of recession. The second two items reflect the grim reality that underlying this recession is a debt problem that has to be addressed before the economy can get healthy again.

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This week’s mortgage news was dominated by a dramatic drop in mortgage rates triggered by a new Federal Reserve approach to the financial crisis.

Of all the actions taken to address this crisis, none has had such immediate and tangible effects. Neither lowering Fed rates nor providing direct financial support to lenders seemed to make so much as a ripple in the credit markets. However, on news of this latest Fed program, 30-year mortgage rates dropped the better part of a full percentage point, falling near their all-time lows.

The Fed has announced that it will buy $600 billion in existing, mortgage-backed debt. This move both frees up capital for new lending, and gives lenders renewed confidence to make loans. It is the latter especially that accounts for the immediate drop in interest rates.

It is worth a closer look at what this action will and won’t accomplish, but in the short term it is undeniable that it has created a rare opportunity for home buyers and people who want to refinance. 

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To much fanfare, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates on October 29th. That was supposed to be this week’s Halloween treat for the markets. The trick came the next day, when Freddie Mac’s survey of mortgage rates revealed that 30-year rates had risen sharply for the week. 

So what gives? A clue to why market rates moved contrary to the federal funds rate could be found in two other pieces of news:

• The housing market continued to be weak, as one survey of major housing markets saw prices extent their slide to 25 consecutive months
• The U.S. dollar showed signs of weakness which were exacerbated by the cut in federal funds rates.

For the time being then, despite the Fed’s actions, things got tougher for borrowers rather than easier. This highlights some realities of what the Fed can and cannot do.

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