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This is going to be the ultimate test of my creative writing skills. How do I convey the exact same information for a third week in a row, seeing that mortgage rates plateaued at all-time record lows again according to the Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac?

Should I freestyle rap it?

Maybe record myself doing an interpretive dance and upload it to our YouTube channel?

Perhaps I should write a sonnet in iambic pentameter? Yeah, I just dropped iambic pentameter on you. You can thank my 11^th grade honors English teacher for that one.

Or should I just go right into the numbers and save you all of the hassle of anticipation?

I think I’m going right into the numbers.

30-year fixed mortgage rates didn’t budge for the third consecutive week and held strong at 3.87 percent with 0.8 points. This is the 11^th straight week that 30-year fixed rates have been below 4.00 percent. A streak like this is almost as strong as the Red Wings winning 21 consecutive games at home, but not quite.  Last year at this time, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 5.00 percent even.

15-year fixed mortgage rates saw their buddy holding still and decided to do the exact same thing. 15-year fixed mortgage rates came in this week at 3.16 percent with 0.8 points, remaining the same as last week except for a 0.1 point bump from last week’s 0.7 points.  Last year, 15-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.27 percent.

5/1-year ARMs dropped slightly from 2.83 percent with 0.7 points last week to 2.82 percent with 0.8 points this week. 1-year ARMs took a decent sized jump to 2.84 percent with 0.6 points from 2.78 percent with 0.6 points last week. This is the first time since November 17, 2011 that the average rate for 1-year ARMs was higher than that of the 5/1-year ARMs.

Last year at this time, 5/1-year ARMs and 1-year ARMs averaged 3.87 percent and 3.39 percent respectively.

Alas, we come to my favorite part of every Thursday morning – “What Did Frank Say?” As we all know by now, Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist over at Freddie Mac, chimes in with some insight every week.

This week, he explained, “Fixed mortgage rates were unchanged this week amid mixed confidence measures. Small business confidence ticked up slightly in January, representing a fourth consecutive month gain, according to the National Federation of Independent Business index. However, the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell in February by more than the market consensus forecast breaking a five-month trend. In the meantime, home builder confidence rose in February to the highest reading since May 2007, based on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.”

If you haven’t taken my weekly advice of refinancing or grabbing a new 30-year fixed mortgage yet, I have to ask you, “WHY NOT??” No one knows how long these rates will last, so act today!

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