Bankrate, Freddie Mac Post Conflicting Rates

On Thursday ""Bankrate"":http://www.bankrate.com/?ec_id=m1035870 and ""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com/ released reports with varying conclusions about mortgage rates for this week, with the former posting a slight dip in 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and the GSE reporting few changes from last week.

[IMAGE]

Publishing its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, ""Freddie"":http://www.freddiemac.com/ yielded a 4.52 percent with an average 0.7 percent for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, a nominal increase from last week when the same rates lingered at 4.51 percent. The same report reflected a 3.66 percent uptick, just remotely above 3.65 percent from last week. At this time last year, the 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages sat at 4.56 percent and 4.03 percent, respectively.

""Mortgage rates were virtually unchanged this week amid mixed economic data reports,"" Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for ""Freddie Mac"":http://www.freddiemac.com/, said in a statement. ""Although both the overall producer price index and consumer price index fell moderately in June on lower energy costs, the core price indexes inched up. In addition, consumer sentiment sank to the lowest reading since March 2009, based on figures from the University of Michigan.

[COLUMN_BREAK]

""The recent housing data also varied,"" he added. ""For example, single-family housing starts jumped 9.4 percent in June to the strongest pace since November 2010 and homebuilder confidence rebounded in July. Yet existing home sales fell 0.8 percent in June and represented the fewest since November 2010.""

For ""Freddie"":http://www.freddiemac.com/, five-year Treasury adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) declined somewhat modestly, averaging 3.27 percent this week with an average 0.5 percent, showing a dip from 3.29 percent last week, still substantively down from 3.79 percent the year before. Marking a modest increase from 2.95 percent last week, the one-year ARM topped off at 2.97 percent with an average 0.5 percent this week ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô still down from 3.70 percent last year.

Meanwhile, in a report titled Interest Rate Roundup, ""Bankrate"":http://www.bankrate.com/ posted declines in 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, with 4.69 percent from last week falling one-hundredth of a percentage point to 4.68 percent this week. The company released data showing that the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage stabilized at 3.82 percent, while jumbo mortgages over $417,000 sauntered back to 5.17 percent, representing a 3-basis point drop. Among five-year Treasury ARMs, ""Bankrate's"":http://www.bankrate.com/ Roundup revealed a 4-basis point slide to 3.36 percent.

The reports follow a set of Wednesday data released by the ""National Association of Realtors"":http://www.realtor.org/, which showed a 0.8 percent plunge over June for totals among single-family town homes, condominiums, and coops, with the numbers coming to rest at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.77 million ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô a decline from 4.81 million over May.