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We’ll continue to enjoy affordable mortgages this spring, making it a good time for most of us to buy or refinance a home.
Over the past seven months rates have moved up a little, then down a little, but the average cost of almost all types of mortgages have remained below 6.5% since mid-August. Well below 6.5% in many cases.
Our mortgage rate comparison charts show many lenders offering rates well below 6% with modest fees of $1,000 or less.
As a result, anyone with average or better credit can expect home loans to cost less than last spring and summer, when the cost of a 30-year fixed-rate loan was climbing towards a peak of nearly 7% in late June.
Freddie Mac -- the government-chartered company that buys mortgages from lenders – anticipates 30-year fixed rate loans will average between 6.35% and 6.4% throughout 2007.
It would be great if mortgages were as cheap as four years ago when rates bottomed out at 5.28%, the lowest they've ever been since Interest.com (and its print predecessors) began its weekly survey of major lenders in 1985.
But today’s rates still compare very favorably to the 7% or 8% we were paying during the mid- to late-'90s, and the double-digit rates we were charged throughout the '80s and early '90s.
Our latest survey of major lenders taken March 21 found the average:
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