Fixed Mortgage Rates at Two-Month Low

Interest rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.91% this week, the lowest level in two months, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said. The decline to a nine-week low was the fourth in a row and brought the weekly average more than a quarter of a percentage point below a seven-month high of 8.18% for the week ended April 3. That was the week after the Federal Reserve Board tightened its monetary policy for the first time in two years. Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 7.44% this week, also a nine-week low and down from 7.47% a week earlier. On one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 5.78% this week, the lowest in seven weeks and down from 5.82%.