Rates for 30-year home loans were unchanged this week and remain close to record-low levels. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.04 percent, still attractive for people looking to buy a home, the same as a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
In an effort to strengthen the recovery the Federal Reserve is to stretching out a program that has lowered mortgage rates and propped up the housing market this year. Analysts suggest that mortgage rates should remain low for now but could eventually head higher, and buyers who want to purchase a home while rates are still good shouldn’t delay.
The Federal Reserve “is betting that conditions should be improved by the second quarter of 2010, and therefore it makes sense to stretch out the timetable for supporting the mortgage markets,” Brian Bethune, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight wrote Wednesday.
