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I know I’m supposed to be a wordsmith here, but seriously, how many different ways can you say “mortgage rates set record-lows?”

I can roll with “all-time lows,” or even “mortgage rates are the lowest they’ve ever been.”  The fact of the matter is, I am just flat out running out of ideas over here, so if you have any, feel free to shoot me an email and help out.

The fact of the matter is this: we have never seen mortgage rates as low as they are this week in the history of the modern mortgage.  Never.  Not once.

Didn’t I say the same thing last week?

Anyway, this week’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac was released showing some very interesting numbers.

30-year fixed mortgage rates dropped to 3.88 percent this week with 0.8 points from last week’s 3.89 percent with 0.7 points.  This is a new record low and marks the seventh week in a row that 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged below 4.00 percent.  Last year at this time, 30-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.74 percent.

15-year fixed mortgage rates increased slightly to 3.17 percent with 0.8 points from last week’s 3.16 percent with 0.8 points.  These rates are still down significantly from last year when 15-year fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.05 percent.

5/1-year ARMs didn’t budge and plateaued at 2.82 percent with 0.7 points over the course of the week. 1-year ARMs fell from 2.76 percent with 0.6 points last week to 2.74 percent with 0.6 points this week.  Last year, 5/1-year ARMs and 1-year ARMs averaged 3.69 percent and 3.25 percent, respectively.

Clearly, my dear friend Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist from Freddie Mac, would be jumping for joy in his seat, right?  After all, we have hit the lowest rates EVER for 30-year fixed mortgage rates.

Well, kind of.  It’s really hard to get a read on this guy.

Frank explained, “Mortgage rates were nearly unchanged this holiday week in lieu of a mixed bag of economic data reports.  On the consumer front, retailed sales edged up only 0.1 percent in December, but the Reuters/University of Michigan sentiment index continued to climb in January to the highest reading since February 2011.”

So Frank decided to totally leave out the fact that we are at all-time record lows right now for mortgage rates.  Come on, Frank!

Eric Mally is a writer for Quicken Loans, a company whose clients believe it’s Engineered to Amaze.  Interested in being Amazed by us? Read trusted reviews at Quicken Loans Reviews and at Epinions.

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