With the US Treasury purchasing $600 billion in mortgage backed securities mortgage rates are falling. There is also a plan being floated where the government would set the 30 year mortgage rate at 4.50% on home purchases – almost 1% below current market rates. The idea being of course that the whole thing started with housing, might as well end it with housing as well. I am sure we all agree that no one really knows the exact solution to cure this crisis.
Regardless here is a snapshot of how rates have fallen in the past few weeks (source: Freddie Mac Weekly Rates):
For reference Freddie Mac reported a weekly average mortgage rate of 6.100% on the first week of October. This week rates are averaging in the 5.500% range.