Mortgage rates dropped slightly this week,

Mortgage rates dropped slightly this week,

Good morning to all. As you probably know there are 49 days left until the expiration of the Home Buyers Credit, but today's great news on the continuing dropping of mortgage rates , will give us an extra reason to get out there and take advantage of this great Real Estate Recovery we are living .

E.Vega www.rwsf.com

Mortgage rates dropped slightly this week, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 4.95% in Freddie Mac's weekly survey of mortgage rates.

The mortgage averaged 4.97% last week and 5.03% a year ago.

The results come as recovery in the U.S. housing market has weakened in recent months. Demand for new and used homes, after strengthening earlier last year, has dropped because of cold weather and continuing high levels of joblessness.

New-home sales unexpectedly hit a record low in January, while existing-home sales also slumped. The National Association of Realtors' index for pending sales of previously owned homes, an indicator of sales to come, fell as well.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.32% for the week ending March 11, down from 4.33% last week and 4.64% a year ago. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.05%, down from 4.11% last week and 4.99% a year ago. And 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.22%, down from 4.27% last week and 4.80% a year ago.

"During a light week of mixed economic reports, mortgage rates eased somewhat," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Pending existing home sales fell 7.6% in January, well below the market consensus of a 1% gain."