Mortgages Rates at their Lowest Levels

Mortgage rates hovered at their lowest levels of the year for the third straight week this week, according to a survey published by Freddie Mac. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at 4.1 percent for the week according to Freddie’s survey.

One of the bigger surprises of 2014 may be that mortgage rates might end the year lower than they began, at around 4.5 percent, even as the Federal Reserve has gradually pared back its purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

Mortgage refinancing has largely subsided because even though mortgage rates are at their lowest levels of the year, they’re still higher than they were for all of 2012 and the first half of 2013, when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to as low as 3.3 percent.