Fed moves, sending mortgage rates to new lows

As interest rates on fixed-rate mortgage loans continue to slide into uncharted territory, demand for refinances has picked up but applications for purchase loans are still at about the same level as a year ago.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans averaged 4.01 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Sept. 29, a new low in records dating to 1971, Freddie Mac said in releasing the results of its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.28 percent this week with an average 0.7 point, down from 3.29 percent last week and 3.75 percent a year ago, Freddie Mac said. That's also a new low in records dating to 1991.

Last year at this time, rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.32 percent, before rising to a 2011 high of 5.05 percent in February when expectations for an economic recovery were running high.