Mortgage rates flatten out, Freddie says: 30-year fixed at 4.41%

Mortgage rates leveled off early this week, with the average for a 30-year fixed loan at 4.41%, a smidge above the 4.4% recorded a week earlier, Freddie Mac said.

Freddie’s survey of what lenders are offering to solid borrowers, released Thursday, showed that the average rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage rose from 3.42% to 3.47%.

The survey’s margin of sampling error is 5 basis points, or 0.05 of a percentage point, according to Freddie Mac spokesman Chad Wandler, which means that from a practical viewpoint this week’s results were unchanged.

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Start rates for variable loans also were slightly higher, according to Freddie’s survey, which asks lenders about the terms they are offering to borrowers who pay less than 1% of the loan amount in upfront lender charges and discount points.

The recent rates for 30-year fixed loans, bumping around in the 4.25% to 4.5% range, are remarkable bargains by historical standards. For most of the 1970s, 30-year fixed rates began with a 7, 8 or 9. From the late 1970s through most of the 1980s they zoomed into double-digit territory.

US 30 Year Mortgage Rate data by YCharts

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