McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.25 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending July 30, 2009, upfrom last week when it averaged 5.20 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.52 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.69 percent with an average 0.7 point, up slightlyfrom last week when it averaged 4.68 percent.A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.07 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 4.75 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, up slightlyfrom last week when it averaged 4.74 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 6.07 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.80 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.77 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.27 percent.

(Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total cost of obtaining the mortgage.)

“Bond yields rose slightly higher this week on market optimism that the economy may be stabilizing somewhat, and mortgage rates followed those yields,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “For instance, the Federal Reserve reported in its July 29th regional review that residential real estate markets in most of its districts remained weak, but many reported signs of improvement. In addition, it noted that entry-level homes continued to perform relatively well in part due to the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

“Other economic reports confirm that the housing market may indeed be bottoming out. New home sales rose for the third consecutive month in June to an annual pace of 384,000 homes, the most since November 2008 and the number of new houses on the market fell to the lowest amount since February 1999, according to the Department of Commerce. Sales of existing homes also showed a three-month gain to 4.89 million, the most since October 2008, and the share of distressed homes fell to 31 percent compared to almost half at the beginning of the year, the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) reported.”

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters. Source: FreddieMac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), www.freddiemac.com

After four straight weeks of increase, mortgage applications dropped last week, as a result of the fall in demand for refinancing loans as interest rates rose as reported by a trade association Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), an industry group representing the real estate finance industry today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 24, 2009.  The Market Composite Index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended July 24 dropped 6.3% to 495.4 from 528.9 a week earlier.

The Refinance Index fell 10.9 percent to 1862.1 from 2089.7 a week earlier while the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index remained unchanged at 262.0.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 2.6 percent.  The four week moving average is down 0.5 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 5.2 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 52.6 percent of total applications from 55.5 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.5 percent from 4.8 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.36 percent from 5.31 percent, with points decreasing to 0.93 from 1.18 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.75 percent from 4.80 percent, with points increasing to 1.14 from 1.03 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs increased to 6.66 percent from 6.50 percent, with points decreasing to 0.09 from 0.11 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Applications for loans to buy a home, an early indicator of sales, were flat. Lack of interest for purchase loans does not bode well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, which has otherwise been showing signs of stabilization.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association, www.mbaa.org

U.S. home prices posted their first monthly increase since summer of 2006 as the widely watched 20-city index released Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities increased 0.5 percent from April, but was still off 17.1 percent from May 2008’s figure. The increase is a positive indication that prices are stabilizing as this was the first month-over- month rise since July 2006.

The 10-city index increased 0.4 percent from April, but was down 16.8 percent in May last year.

It was the fourth straight month that both indexes did not register record year-over-year decline.

Thirteen among the 20 cities included in the 20-city index showed monthly increases with Cleveland posting the best result with a 4.1 percent gain. Dallas and Boston followed. In April, only eight of the cities showed improvement.

The city still with the biggest price decline was Las Vegas at 2.6 percent.

The 20-city index has lost more than 32 percent from its high three years ago, putting home prices back to mid-2003 levels.

The Case-Shiller indexes monitor repeat sales on a specific group of homes in each city. Sales between related parties, such as family members, are excluded.

The Commerce Department said Monday that new US home sales rose 11 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 384,000 homes from an upwardly revised May rate of 346,000. This is the largest monthly gain in more than eight months. However, sales are still down 21.3 percent against year ago level, when new homes sold estimate was 488,000.

During the housing boom four years ago, the sales rate was 1,374,000 which was more than 3 times the current sales rate.

The last time sales dramatically spiked as this was in December 2000.

The median price paid for a house sold in June 2009 was down about 3% to $206,200; the mean price was $276,900.

Sales have risen for third straight month. The median sales price of new houses sold in June 2009 was $206,200, down 12 percent from last year’s level of $234,300 and down almost 6 percent May’s $219,000 figure.

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of June was 281,000, down more than 4 percent compared to May. This represents a supply of 8.8 months at the current sales pace and the lowest level since October 2007.

With the current developments, builders’ confidence have improved as such the pace of construction improved in June as they began building single-family housing units at 470,000, a 14.4 percent climb over May.

McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.20 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending July 23, 2009, up from last week when it averaged 5.14 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.63 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 4.68 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.63 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.18 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 4.74 percent this week, with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 4.83 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 5.49 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.77 percent this week with an average 0.6 point, up slightly from last week when it averaged 4.76 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.49 percent.

(Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total cost of obtaining the mortgage.)

"Mortgage interest rates were mixed this past week with fixed-rate loans averaging somewhat higher while initial rates on ARMs were flat-to-down slightly," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, during his July 22 Senate testimony, noted that mortgage rates are lower than they were last fall, in part because of the Federal Reserve's actions, and housing affordability right now is the highest its been in many years.

"Newly released housing indicators contain positive signs that the worst may be behind us. Home prices were down 5.6 percent between May 2008 and May 2009, the smallest 12-month decline since June 2008, based on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index. New construction of one-family homes jumped 14.4 percent in June to an annualized pace of 470,000 units, the most since October 2008, according to the Commerce Department. In addition, the National Association of Home Builders reported that homebuilders' assessments of market conditions in July and for the remainder of this year strengthened to a 10-month high."

Freddie Mac was established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. Freddie Mac supports communities across the nation by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than five million renters.

Source: FreddieMac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), www.freddiemac.com