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Mortgage rates set records

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Average U.S. rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgages fell to fresh record lows this week, offering more incentive for Americans to buy or refinance homes.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan fell to 3.84 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s. That’s below the previous record rate of 3.87 percent reached in February.

The 15-year mortgage, a popular option for refinancing, dropped to 3.07 percent, also a record. The previous record of 3.11 percent was hit three weeks ago.

Cheaper mortgage rates haven’t done much to boost home sales. Rates have been below 4 percent for all but one week since early December. Yet sales of both previously occupied homes and new homes fell in March.

Analysts suspect some of that weakness reflected a warm winter, which pulled sales that would normally occur during the spring buying season into January and February.

4 ways to capitalize on shift to seller's market 

Some see signs of the next housing shortage

By Bernice Ross, Thursday, May 3, 2012.

Inman News®

Rainbow of houses image via Shutterstock.

It's spring selling season and good news is popping up like wildflowers in many places. The rocky bottom may be behind us with a new challenge ahead: a seller's market with higher prices and not enough inventory.
"A seller's market? Are you serious?" the naysayers will say. "NAR just announced that prices declined again and that the current sales pace puts us on track for doing about 4.93 million home sales in 2012. That's less than the typical 5 million home sales that constitutes an average year."