The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 4 basis points this week, to 4.92 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. This is a record low in the history of Bankrate.com's weekly survey, which goes back almost 25 years, to September 1985.
The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 0.42 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 5.45 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.21 percent.
The benchmark 15-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged at 4.34 percent. The benchmark 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage jumped 12 basis points, to 4.26 percent.
Turmoil and uncertainty abroad tend to push down on mortgage rates in the United States, and that's what happened this week.
"There's so much uncertainty in Europe that we, by comparison, look stable," says Bill Bartmann, who runs Bartmann Enterprises, a Tulsa, Okla.-based fund that invests in distressed assets.
Even with U.S. economic and fiscal troubles, "we have just won the ugly contest," Bartmann says. "The money is moving from Europe to here, causing the rates to fall."
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