Mortgage Rates Still Low

There is still time to refinance your home mortgage. As the accompanying table shows, residential mortgage rates (excluding points) have continued to drift downwards from September of last year. The latest available data from Freddie Mac as this is being written were for the end of January. The rate for the first week of January was the lowest since the 1960s according to Freddie. You may have to move fast.

This mortgage interest rate environment helped existing home sales set a record of 5.56 million in 2002. December's annual rate of 5.86 million was the fastest since February and helped beat the previous record for annual existing home sales of 5.3 million that was reached in 2001. The National Association of Realtors forecasts U.S. consumers will purchase approximately 5.34 million existing homes in 2003.

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