Mortgage Rates Dip as U.S. Growth Slows

Freddie Mac released its weekly update on national mortgage rates this morning.

Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRM) retraced last week's rise in this latest report, dropping three basis points to land right back where they were two weeks ago -- at 3.54%. Shorter-term 15-year FRMs also declined a bit, down two basis points to 2.74%. Similarly, 5/1 ARMs fell three basis points to 2.65%.

The notable deviant this week was one-year ARMs, which bucked the trend by rising a single basis points to 2.63%.

Commenting on the numbers, Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's vice president and chief economist, attributed the overall decline in mortgage rates to a slowdown in manufacturing growth: "Regionally, both the Chicago and Milwaukee purchasing manager reports for March fell below the market consensus forecast. On a national scale, both the ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing indexes also showed reductions in growth."

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