Mortgage Rates Down this Week

Mortgage rates dropped this week, providing a dose of welcome news to prospective homebuyers.Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, reported Thursday that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.20 percent for the week ending Nov. 6. That was down sharply from 6.46 percent last week.

The retreat in mortgages rates comes as the economy is getting weaker.“Mortgage rates fell this week amid new indications of a pullback in consumer spending and a weaker jobs market,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

Those factors are reducing investors’ concerns about inflation, which is helping to pull down mortgage rates. Thirty-year mortgage rates hit a high for the year of 6.63 percent in late July, and then dropped to a seven-month low of 5.78 percent for the week ending Sept. 18.