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Freddie Mac, Bankrate: Mortgage rates move little

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — It was a quiet week on the mortgage rate front, the two major surveys released Thursday showed. One moved slightly higher, while the other slightly lower.

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey found the 30-year dropping to 3.32 percent with 0.7 point, down from 3.34 percent a week earlier. Bankrate’s national mortgage market moved in the opposite direction, rising to 3.52 percent with 0.37 point, up from 3.50 percent a week earlier.

In both surveys, rates still teetered above their all-time lows.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 2.66 percent with 0.6 point from 2.67 percent a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac, while holding steady at 2.85 percent with 0.27 point, according to Bankrate.

Bankrate said the stalemate in the federal budget negotiation — the fiscal cliff — helped keep rates in place over the past week. However, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced that it was going to continue buy up mortgage-backed securities, a move that could push rates south, assuming Congress can reach a deal on the budget.