Mortgage rates continued along their downward trend to end the year, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac released Thursday.
A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.55 percent for the week ending December 27, 2018, down from last week when it averaged 4.62 percent. It’s still more than half a percentage point above last year’s 3.99 percent at the end of December.
A 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.01 percent, down from last week’s 4.07 percent and up from last year’s 3.44 percent over the same period. The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 4 percent, up from last week’s 3.98 percent and up from last year’s 3.47 percent.
“Rates continued their two-month slide and are currently hovering around the same level as the early summer, which was before the deterioration in home sales,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said. “The negative headlines around the financial markets are concerning, but the economy remains healthy, so the drop in mortgage rates should stem or even reverse the slide in home sales that occurred during the second half of 2018.”
