Mortgage Rates Fall Again But Not For Long

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey reported the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.94% for the week ending May 13, 2021. A year ago, the 30-year averaged 3.28%. While rates have been slowly retreating over the past couple of weeks, Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater believes the trend may come to end as summer approaches.

“Since the most recent peak in April, mortgage rates have declined nearly a quarter of a percent and have remained under three percent for the past month,” said Khater. “Low rates offer homeowners an opportunity to lower their monthly payment by refinancing and our most recent research shows that many borrowers, especially Black and Hispanic borrowers, who could benefit from refinancing still aren’t pursuing the option. Additionally, the low mortgage rate environment has been a boon to the housing market but may not last long as consumer inflation has accelerated at its fastest pace in more than twelve years and may lead to higher mortgage rates in the summer.”

Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.26%, down from 2.30% the previous week and 2.72% the previous year. The 5-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.59%, down from 2.70% last week and 3.18% for the same period in 2020.‍

Click here to see Freddie Mac's full PMMS.