Florida Mortgage Rates Unchanged Despite Bad Credit Home Loan Woes

Florida mortgage rates remained largely unchanged last week, despite wide-ranging reports of trouble within the subprime lending industry.

Even as multiple bad credit mortgage lenders experienced problems as their loans to risky borrowers are defaulting at record rates, the 30-year, fixed rate mortgage - the industry’s benchmark loan - averaged just 6.14 percent, unchanged from last week.

A year ago, the 30-year, fixed-rate Florida mortgage stood at 6.34 percent.

The 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage - a popular lending option for Florida mortgage refinancing - averaged just 5.88 percent, up a bit from 5.86 last week.

“Mortgage rates moved little in the past week, as the latest economic news gave no reason for change,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac, which conducted the weekly survey.

A year ago, the 15-year, fixed-rate Florida mortgage averaged 5.98 percent.

As for what comes next? It will depend largely on economic forecasts.

“Over the course of next week, February inflation measures at the wholesale and retail levels will be published,” Nothaft said. “That could serve as the driving force behind mortgage rates‘ movement.”

The five-year treasury-indexed adjustable-rate Florida mortgage loan (ARM) averaged 5.90 percent over the past week, unchanged from last week.

The 5-year adjustable-rate loan last year averaged 5.93 percent.

The one-year ARM averaged just 5.42 percent, a drop from 5.47 percent last week. Last year around this time, the one-year Florida mortgages could be attained for were percent.

The impact of bad credit home loan problems has extended well beyond the Sunshine State, though Florida home mortgage problems remain a hot spot.

Leading U.S. home builders that have reported weakness in prices as the housing market has continued to slow dramatically include Lennar, Pulte Homes, and D.R. Horton.