SEATTLE, March 2 /PRNewswire/ — The 30-year fixed mortgage rate on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is currently 4.80 percent, down four basis points from 4.84 percent compared to this same time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate peaked at 4.87 percent late last week before hovering below 4.80 percent over the weekend.
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Zillow’s real-time mortgage rates are based on thousands of custom mortgage quotes submitted daily to anonymous borrowers through the site, and reflect the most recent changes in the market. These are not marketing rates, or a weekly survey.
The rate for 15-year fixed home loans is currently 4.23 percent, while the rate for 5-1 adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) is 3.57 percent.
The total volume of mortgage requests in the past week was unchanged from the prior week. Of last week’s requests, 32.2 percent were for refinance loans, 65.8 percent were for purchase loans and 2.0 percent were for home equity loans. The prior week, 30.2 percent of requests were for refinance loans, 67.7 percent were for purchase loans and 2.1 percent were for home equity loans.
Below are current rates for 30-year fixed mortgages by state. Additional states’ rates are available at: www.zillow.com/Mortgage_Rates.
State Current 30-Year Fixed Rate (3/2/10) Last week’s 30-Year Fixed Rate (2/23/10) Change in Basis Points
California Mortgage Rates
4.71% 4.82% -11
Colorado Mortgage Rates
4.88% 4.92% -4
Florida Mortgage Rates
4.79% 4.86% -7
Illinois Mortgage Rates
4.79% 4.85% -6
Massachusetts Mortgage Rates
4.90% 4.88% +2
New Jersey Mortgage Rates
4.86% 4.89% -3
New York Mortgage Rates
4.88% 5.00% -12
Pennsylvania Mortgage Rates
4.81% 4.78% +3
Texas Mortgage Rates
4.69% 4.82% -13
Washington Mortgage Rates
4.82% 4.89% -7

About Zillow Mortgage Marketplace
Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is a free, open, and transparent lending marketplace, where borrowers connect with lenders to find loans and get the best mortgage rates. Borrowers anonymously submit loan requests and receive an unlimited number of custom mortgage quotes with real rates directly from thousands of competing lenders. Zillow Mortgage Marketplace also provides mortgage calculators, mortgage advice, mortgage widgets, and lender directories.
Zillow.com and Zillow are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.
SOURCE Zillow.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Associated Press) – Homeowners have received another year to refinance their loans under the Home Affordable Refinance Program, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced yesterday.
The program, which was originally scheduled to end June 10 but now expires June 30, 2011, allows borrowers who owe up to 25 percent more than their homes are worth to refinance at lower interest rates.
The Treasury Department reports that, so far, the program has helped about 220,000 homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, far less than the projected four to five million.

AUSTIN (Austin American-Statesman) – Applications for mortgages have jumped in the past week as the average interest rate on 30-year loans fell below 5 percent for the first time since May, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

As the average interest rate for 30-year loans fell from 5.08 percent to 4.97 percent in the week ending Sept. 18, the association’s index of mortgage activity rose 12.8 percent and was 14 percent higher than the same week in 2008.

As has been the case for months, most applications continue to be for refinancings, which accounted for almost 64 percent of the total.

The association’s purchase index was up 5.6 percent last week from the previous week.

The average rate for 15-year loans was unchanged at 4.41 percent, and the rate for one-year adjustable loans slipped to 6.52 percent from 6.61 percent the previous week.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (New York Times) – The Federal Reserve acknowledged on Wednesday that an economic recovery was underway but signaled that it was still much too early to start raising interest rates.

In a statement following a two-day meeting by the Fed’s policy makers, the central bank repeated that it would keep its benchmark overnight interest rate at virtually zero for “an extended period.”

Policy makers also announced that they would extend the Fed’s program to buy up almost $1.5 trillion worth of mortgage-related securities through the end of March.

TEXAS (Real Estate Center, The Herald-Zeitung) – Despite rising foreclosure rates in the United States (now nearly 32 percent), the rate in Texas is down 14 percent since last year.

Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said the Texas housing market is doing very well compared with the rest of the nation.

“We’re being compared to large, high-growth states like Florida, New York, California and Illinois, and our housing market is in much better shape. This is partly because about four or five years ago, we didn’t have the big run-up in prices that many of those states had,” Gaines said.

Texas also benefits from a lack of overbuilding, which often creates an excess of inventory to drive down home prices.

Affordable homes, low mortgage and interest rates, and first-time homebuyer tax credits also make this an ideal time to buy a home, according to Gaines.