It’s fair to say that mortgage rates have now fallen to levels that, most students of history would characterize as simply ridiculous. And, what’s even more ridiculous is that, even at these low rates, buyers aren’t taking the bait and loading up on new debt to go out and get that home of their dreams.
It’s not clear who’s balking more – lenders or borrowers, as it doesn’t seem that anyone trusts anyone else anymore when it comes to credit and debt - but “freakishly” low rates are no longer the exclusive domain of big banks borrowing from the Fed at zero percent.
Extrapolating from the current trend, aspiring homeowners will be able to borrow from the big banks at zero percent by the end of the summer.
Freddie Mac’s (FRE) weekly report on the cost of financing a home purchase added to this week’s bizarre set of financial market numbers, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropping from 4.69 percent to 4.58 percent, a new record in a data series that goes back almost 40 years.
Fifteen-year mortgage rates have been setting records for more than a month now, last week dropping from 4.13 percent to 4.04 percent.
With the benchmark ten-year note sitting comfortably below three percent, we’ll probably soon see 15-year mortgages going for under four percent, part of this brave new financial world of 2010 that, lately, looks like it wants to do an encore of its 2008 performance.
