Florida Home Loan Rates Slide Again; Buyers Seeing More and More Openings

Average interest rates for Florida home loans dropped for the fourth week in a row, to levels not seen since the beginning of the 2006, according to a survey released Thursday.

Now is a tremendous opportunity for first-time buyers as unsold inventory remains high and conventional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rates fell to just 6.11 percent, down slightly from 6.14 percent last week, marking the lowest levels recorded in the state since 6.10 percent the week ending January 19.

Standard 15-year Florida mortgage rates also slipped a bit to 5.84 percent, a decline from 5.87 percent a week before. The last time 15-year loans, a popular choice for refinancing, could be secured at lower interest rates was back in early February, when they averaged 5.83 percent.

One-year adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs), meanwhile, finished the week at just 5.43 percent, down from 5.46 percent last Thursday.

Strange as it sounds to those of us who watched rates climb for months on end, a Florida home mortgage is actually cheaper now than it would have been a year ago at this time, when 30-year mortgages averaged 6.32 percent, 15-year home loans 5.87 percent, and one-year ARMs 5.16 percent.

“Continued signs of slowing in the housing market and weakness in the manufacturing sector helped keep mortgage rates down this week,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac V.P. and chief economist, said. “Looking forward in the housing market, we think that housing is about 2/3 of the way through the correction, and should stabilize by mid-year 2007.”

Freddie Mac said mortgage lenders charged an average of 0.5 percent in fees and points on 30- and 15-year mortgage loans, both up from 0.4 percent last week. They charged 0.7 percent on the one-year ARM, the same as last week.