The New York Times
The Federal Reserve’s plan to coax mortgage rates lower is working: rates on 30-year fixed loans fell for the 10th consecutive week to the lowest levels in decades, according to a recent Freddie Mac survey.
What is not clear, however, is whether rates are attractive enough to lure a significant number of home buyers back into the ailing housing market.
Read it here> Average Mortgage Rate Hits 5%, Lowest in Decades
5% seems like a gift from heaven.
When we bought our first house in 1981, we were living in Chicago and bought a house in Highland Park on the north shore.
Rates were 17% then, but we weren't discouraged, we wanted to buy a house in the burbs, so we went ahead and bought. What were we supposed to do, put our life on hold and wait for rates to come down. We got a pretty good deal on the house, and then we refinanced 3 times over the next 4 years and eventually got it down to the single digits. And it was the right thing to do.
But 5%, that's close to free money.