MORTGAGE RATES CONTINUE TO REMAIN STABLE

Mortgage rates continued to remain stable this week, even as the stock market rallied on signs of a strengthening economy in the United States.

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The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained at 3.73 percent, according to Bankrate.com’s national survey of large lenders. The mortgages in this week’s survey had an average total of 0.36 discount and origination points. A year ago, the mortgage index stood at 4.11 percent; four weeks ago, it was 3.76 percent.

The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 2.96 percent, the same as last week. The benchmark 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage stayed at 2.68 percent.

So will the Fed keep mortgage rates low? Mortgage rates may fluctuate in the near term, but they are expected to remain low as long as the Fed continues to purchase $85 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

National data also indicates that the housing recovery continues to gain momentum.  The Commerce Department reported this week that new home sales surged in January to the highest level in 4.5 years.  Sales of new single family homes were up 15.6% to a seasonally adjusted 437,000 annual rate which is the highest since July 2008 and was the largest gain since April 1993 and up 28.9% from January 2012. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas showed that home prices increased 6.8% last year from 2011 numbers which was the largest gain in more than six years. The index increased 0.9% in December on a seasonally adjusted basis.

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