The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell for the fifth consecutive week, dropping to a level - below 7 percent - that helped spur a boomlet in home sales and mortgage refinancing early this year.
The rate averaged 6.94 percent this week, down from 7.04 percent the previous week, Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, said Thursday. That's the lowest level since the average hit a four-year low of 6.89 percent in mid-January.This week's decline was the sharpest in six months and brought the average more than a quarter point below the 51/2-month high of 7.22 percent reached at the end of April.
Mortgage rates have followed the drop in yields on U.S. Treasury securities. Treasury yields have fallen because a new round of turmoil in Asia, spilling into U.S. stock markets, has prompted both domestic and overseas investors to seek the relative safety of government-guaranteed bonds.
Mortgage applications last week were 69 percent higher than a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America said.