Benchmark mortgage rate slips closer to record low
BY Wire reports
Friday, January 04, 2013
1/04/13 at 4:34 AM
The nation's benchmark mortgage rate has moved closer to its record low.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average 30-year, fixed-rate home loan is going for 3.34 percent, a slip from 3.35 percent last week. That's near the 3.31 percent rate reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971.
The rate averaged 3.66 percent in 2012, the lowest annual average in 65 years, according to Freddie Mac.
Cheaper mortgages helped the housing market rebound last year, and many economists predict the recovery will strengthen in 2013.
