FHA Loans, FHA Mortgage, Home Refinance, FHA Refinancing, FHA Lender

Mortgage buyer, Freddie Mac, announced that FHA rates dropped to 4.98% from 5.03 % a week earlier. The interest rate drop was just short of the record low 4.96 % touched the week of January 15th. Bloomberg reported that the average U.S. rate on a thirty-year fixed mortgage fell this week as the Federal Reserve announced it would double purchases of mortgage debt as part of its effort to lower rates and lure homebuyers to the market.

The Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it plans to buy up to $300 billion of Treasuries and increase purchases of mortgage-backed bonds. Falling real estate and stock prices, record home-loan defaults and job losses have cut demand for new and existing homes in the U.S. The nation’s jobless rate rose to 8.1 % in February as employers reduced payrolls by 651,000, according to the Labor Department.

Home loan delinquencies jumped to a seasonally adjusted 7.88 % of all loans in the fourth quarter, the highest in records going back to 1972, the Mortgage Bankers Association said March 5^th home loans in foreclosure rose to 3.30 %, also an all-time high.