Florida Mortgage Rates Fall in Last Week

Florida mortgage rates slipped slightly in the last week, a trend caused in large part by employment news halting what had been a recent upward trend.

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average fell to 6.28 percent from 6.34 percent, the government-backed mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said, citing results of its weekly primary mortgage market survey.

While they’ve had their ups and downs, not much has changed in the last 12 months for the industry’s benchmark loan. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate Florida mortgage averaged 6.24 percent.

The mortgage agency said its survey showed the 15-year loan also fell, to 6.02 percent from 6.06 percent. One year ago, the 15-year home mortgage, a popular choice for Florida home loan refinancing, averaged 5.83 percent.

“News of moderate employment gains in January led to a halt in the recent upward trend of [rising mortgage rates],” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist. “The 111,000 jobs added last month were fewer than had been anticipated, while the unemployment rate edged up unexpectedly.”

The 1-year Treasury-indexed adjustable rate mortgage decreased to 5.49 percent from 5.54 percent. At this time last year, 1-year ARMs averaged 5.34 percent.

The 5-year hybrid ARM dropped to 5.99 percent from 6.04 percent. A year ago, the 5-year adjustable-rate Florida home loans averaged 5.83 percent.

Freddie Mac said that throughout the year, Freddie Mac expect rates on 30-year mortgages to average between 6.3-6.5 percent, which is continued good news for those looking for an entry into the South Florida housing market.

The flat or increasing rates will likely cause Florida mortgage refinancing activity to contract gradually, experts say, and in addition, the dollar volume of home equity cashed-out will also retreat from record levels of 2006 to more reasonable totals this year.