Rates moved up slightly again in the past week. Freddie Mac announced that for the week ending October 29, 30-year fixed rates averaged 5.03%, up from 5.00% the week before. The average for 15-year fixed rose to 4.46%. Adjustables were also up slightly with the average for one-year adjustables rising to 4.57% and five-year adjustables increasing to 4.42%. A year ago 30-year fixed rates were at 6.46%. “Rates for 30-year fixed loans have averaged just below 5 percent this year, which is the lowest 10-month average since the survey began in 1971,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “As a result, refi activity has accounted for almost seven out of 10 applications on average this year, according to Freddie Mac’s survey. Ec onomic data releases this week offered mixed signals as to the current state of the housing market. For example, total existing home sales jumped 9.4 percent to an annualized rate of 5.57 million homes in September, the strongest pace since July 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors. However, new home sales unexpectedly fell 3.6 percent to 402,000 houses, the weakest since June of this year. Nonetheless, stronger housing demand has lowered the inventory of unsold existing homes in September to the lowest since January of this year and for new homes the lowest since November 1982, which should help stabilize falling house prices.”

	Daily Value	Monthly Value
	Oct. 29	September
6-month Treasury Security	0.17%	0.21%
1-year Treasury Security	0.40%	0.40%
3-year Treasury Security	1.52%	1.48%
5-year Treasury Security	2.44%	2.37%
10-year Treasury Security	3.53%	3.40%
12-month LIBOR		1.271% (Sept)
12-month MTA		0.632% (Sept)
11th District Cost of Funds		1.412% (Aug)
Prime Rate		3.25% (Dec)