Freddie Mac said Thursday that 30-year mortgage rates fell this week as the economy weakened.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the week that ended Nov. 6 fell 26 basis points from the previous week and 4 basis points from a year earlier, to 6.2%. The average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 31 basis points from the previous week, to 5.88%.

"Mortgage rates fell this week amid new indications of a pullback in consumer spending and a weaker jobs market," Frank Nothaft, Freddie's chief economist, said in a press release.

The economy shrank 0.3% in the third quarter, Mr. Nothaft said, after the first decline in consumer spending since late 1991.

He said 70% of banks have raised lending standards for prime mortgages, and "about 90% of banks that offer nontraditional mortgages did so."

 

 

Originally published by American Banker.