Rates remain steady

Rates remain steady

In spite of all the excitement in the credit markets that had dominated the financial news recently, interest rates on thirty year fixed rate mortgages has remained stable. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 8 basis points, to 6.56 percent, according to Bankrate.com. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. These rates in this week's survey had an average total of 0.40 discount and origination points. Last year at this time, the mortgage index was 6.58 percent. Four weeks ago, it was 6.77 percent.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 8 basis points, to 6.18 percent. The rate on 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage (fixed for the first five years, adjusts every year after that) fell 8 basis points, to 6.26 percent.

Interest rates have been the only constant during this whole mortgage meltdown. Just when things seem to be stabilizing, more bad news comes to light.

It is apparent that the government (us) is going to have to make some pretty substantial deposits into the bank accounts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The actual amounts of the deposits aren't known yet of course, but it will be one of those amounts that are so big, they won't mean anything to us anyway.

So, while the credit markets continues to churn in turmoil, rates have remained favorable to those who can qualify for them. Who knows for how long?

Carl Trawick is a Mortgage Specialist and Licensed Mortgage Broker with the firm Access e*Mortgage. He can be reached at 904-343-1145 or ctrawick@nefcom.net