30-Year Mortgage Rates Remain Stable

The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages held steady at 7.84% this week, while other mortgage rates edged down, according to a weekly survey by Freddie Mac, the mortgage company. Mortgage rates have generally moved higher this year. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage hit a low of 6.74% in January and a high of 8.15% in mid-August. Fifteen-year mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, averaged 7.45% this week, down slightly from 7.46% last week. On one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 6.45% this week, also down from 6.49% the previous week. The rates do not include add-on fees known as points, which averaged about 1% of the loan amount for all three types of mortgages. Separately, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. of America said that mortgage loan applications for the week ending Dec. 3 increased 31.9% from the previous week but were down 49.9% compared with the same week last year.