1st Southwest Realty

To our valued clients:

Scroll down to read the articles of interest. I hope you enjoy this monthly newsletter. Remember whether you are buying a new or resale home it is important to have a realtor to represent your interests. If you know of anyone who is thinking about buying or selling please let me know.  You can search the MLS from my website at www.sellaznow.com.

If you have a rental property and need a property manager or if your Homeowner's Association is looking for a new management company please email Karen Van Vugt at ftr9558@cox.net. Karen manages over 250 rental units and several Homeowner's Associations in the greater Phoenix area.

If you no longer want to receive this newsletter reply with remove in the subject line.

Sincerely,
Pat Hune
Broker
greathouseaz@gmail.com
1st Southwest Realty
www.greathouseaz.com
Search the real MLS from my website!
Cell 480-703-1976
Fax 480-304-9099


Good News

New inventory and total inventory of residential housing continues to drop.  The months supply of inventory has continued to decrease.  Foreclosures are slowing and foreclosure notices are down 48% to the lowest level since December 2007.  The prices in some areas have stabilized.   The puzzling piece is despite the reduction in inventory and continued demand especially for properties priced at $150,000 or less the prices in most areas have yet to increase.  Many real estate analysts believe prices will go down another 3-5% before the end of 2011.

The founder of a popular for-sale by owner Web site used a real estate broker to help sell his 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom New York apartment after it lingered on the market for six months. Colby Sambrotto, the founder and former chief operating officer of ForSalebyOwner.com, tried to sell the property himself by listing it online and through classified ads, but after six months of it sitting on the market, he sought the help of a real estate broker.

Two new apartment complexes are on tap for the East Valley, including a Tempe project that developers say is the largest of its kind in the Valley in more than two years.  Work on the $29 million San Marquis Apartments, at Baseline and Rural roads, is under way and set for completion in late 2012. It will have 224 units.  It's a venture of Kitchell Development and Mark-Taylor, two firms with development and property-management experience.  The two companies also plan to break ground soon on a second and larger project, the 383-unit Parcland Crossing luxury apartment community at Loop 202 and Alma School Road in Chandler. That venture, with an estimated cost of $44 million, also is slated for completion late next year.  A six story apartment building is planned to be built at Apache and Rural giving residents easy access to the Light Rail.

Bad News

FHA maximum loan limits set to change on October 1, 2011.  As an emergency measure three years ago, Congress raised federally backed loan amounts. Now those limits are set to decline in hundreds of counties across the United States limiting the homeowner's buying power.  If Congress does nothing, the FHA limits will change effective October 1st, 2011.  The loan limits vary by county. Maricopa and Pinal county limits will decrease by $75,200 from $346,250 to $271,050.  There is already so much inventory in the $225K to $400K price range this reduction could make this segment of the market even harder to sell.  The cut off for loan applications at most lenders will be mid-August.

USDA financing may end for some of the outlying areas in Maricopa and Pinal County.  This is a great zero down program to encourage home buyers to purchase in remote areas.  The availability of these loans is based on the population and many of these cities are over the minimum 25,000 population.

Articles
1) STAT Newsletter Link
2) The Cromford Report - August 2011
3)  Phoenix-area foreclosure rate keeps dropping
4) Big Money Gets Into Landlord Game
5)  Real Estate News Briefs
6) Mortgage rates fall again, 30-year near record low
7) USDA Financing May End For Queen Creek, Maricopa and the San Tan Valley

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1) STAT Newsletter Link

STAT is produced monthly  by the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service - the database realtors use to list homes for sale and that have sold.

http://www.armls.com/Libraries/STAT_and_PPI_2011/STAT-August-2011.sflb.ashx

The ARMLS Pending Price Index™ is a forecasting tool unique to ARMLS which predicts the average and median sales prices three months into the future based on pending
prices of properties in the MLS system in the contract-to close phase of escrow.

http://www.armls.com/Libraries/STAT_and_PPI_2011/PPI-AUGUST-2011.sflb.ashx

Highlights from the newsletter are:

SALES - Total sales in July (8,387) regressed to pre-March levels.  The 24.6% decline from June’s 11,125 is a disappointment.  However, it follows a distinct wave pattern in total sales which started with November’s trough.  We should not read too much into July’s decline which could reverse itself next month if sales follow the pattern of the last nine months.   July sales (8,387) represented an 18.1% increase over July 2010. This figure, while disappointing after the June’s emotional and numerical high (11,125), follows a typical June to July sales pattern, where sales fell from June to July in eight of last ten years.

NEW INVENTORY - New inventory dropped again in July to 9,140, besting December’s twelve month low of  9,443. New inventory added each month has traveled on a downward trend line since last August.   Declines in new inventory affect the current supply and are recognized as a healthy sign

TOTAL INVENTORY - Total inventory in July continued its decline started in November.  July’s figure (27,663) is a 5.3% decline from June and a 35.5% drop from July 2010.  The Valley’s large inventory perpetuates the market’s imbalance in many market niches, and the steady decline in total inventory is a vital component in righting the supply and demand balance.

MONTHS SUPPLY OF INVENTORY (MSI) - Months supply of inventory ticked up to 3.30 in July from June’s 2.62, not a surprise given the decline in sales activity.   Even with the slight rise, the trajectory of MSI has been on a steady downward trend line since November.  MSIs below 4 indicate a Seller’s market, between 4 and 6 a balanced market and above 6 a Buyer’s market.  The MSI for the entire Valley as provided in STAT is merely a barometer of market health, and not indicative of inventory supply in smaller market niches which can vary widely.  In reality, many areas and price ranges are in oversupply, even though the MSI for the entire Valley indicates a Seller’s market.

NEW LIST PRICES - New list pricing continues on the anemic flat line of the last twelve months.  The median new list price ticked up 4% to $124,900, while the average fell .9% to $188,700 from last month’s $190,400.  The median price is 3.9% below last year’s July median, and the average is 5% lower than July of 2010. All in all, there is not much of a pulse for a market trying for a pricing recovery.

FORECLOSURES PENDING - Foreclosures pending continued its sharp, steady downward trajectory for another month.  Total foreclosures pending for July were 25,073, down from last month’s 27,616, and crossed below the 2008 inclining foreclosures pending trend line.  If the current trajectory holds true, it is highly likely that foreclosures pending will drop to the 10,000 mark by year end, a level not seen since September 2007. Current depressed pricing cannot recover until the foreclosures glut is absorbed.  While the total number of foreclosures in the system remains high, declines in the foreclosures pending, the replenishment source for lender owned properties, signal an eventual end to the foreclosure oversupply.  This is a positive indicator of better times to come.

LENDER OWNED SALES - Lender owned sales (3,614) accounted for 43.1% of total sales in July, up 2.3% over June’s percentage.  These sales hovered between 46.2% and 40.8% since March, still accounting for a significant portion of total Valley sales. Future declines in this metric must occur for Valley prices to rise.

SHORT SALES - Distressed sales are a combination of lender owned and short sales and have dominated the total sales since well before STAT began to track them.  Distressed sales (5,595) for July accounted for 66.7% of total sales, right in line with the previous twelve month average of 67.13%. July short sales (1,981) dropped 34% from June’s 3,002. The July figure represents 23.6% of total sales.  Distressed sales continue to dominate the total sales landscape although with the promise of an end as the foreclosures pending continue to dwindle.

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2) The Cromford Report - August 2011

Although we didn’t see the record breaking sales numbers of June, July had plenty of positive news for market watchers. An important exception was pricing, and no doubt much will be made of that by the housing doom folks, but then Cromford Report readers all know that pricing is a trailing indicator, don’t we?

According to the current ARMLS data, 8,522 homes closed during July across all areas and types. This is 19.4% below the 10,568 we are measuring today for June. This dip between June and July is a normal seasonal effect. The key comparison to make is with July 2010. Here we are up 23.3% compared with 6,911 a clear sign that the market is healthier today than it was last year when we were reporting significant deterioration.

Due to the exceptionally large number of short sales in the ARMLS numbers, we experience a lot of “turbulence” in these sales numbers and they continue to change for many weeks after the end of the month. On July 2 last month we could see 3,057 short sales and pre-foreclosures across Greater Phoenix but this number is now measured at 2,481. The flexmls system automatically closes pending transactions when their Close of Escrow date is reached. Quite often a snag occurs in real life and a sale fails to close when expected and has to be manually reversed later. This is far more likely to happen with short sales than other types because of the large number of approvals and documents needed to successfully close escrow. As usual our sales counts will be constantly monitored and corrected as newer statistics emerge on a daily basis. The 19% drop-out rate for June is the highest we have seen and is unlikely to be repeated in July’s numbers, but please treat all reports with caution due to this effect.

Here are some key figures for all areas & types:

Pending Listings: 11,491 on August 1, down 6% from 12,224 on July 1, but up 17% compared with August 1, 2010.

Active Listings: 27,787 on August 1, down 3.6% from 28,837 on July 1, and down 34.6% compared with August 1, 2010.

Listing Success Rate: 74.4% on August 1 which compares favorably with 73.5% on July 1 and very favorably with 58.5% on August 1, 2010.

In a normal year supply starts to increase from the beginning of July, so that 3.6% decline in active listings is a positive sign. Because of the lower monthly sales rate in July, months of supply has edged up from 2.9 to 3.0 months, but this is well below normal. The average months of supply for 2001 onwards is 5.8 months. A less volatile way to measure inventory is to divide active listings by the annual sales rate as this largely eliminates seasonal effects. Here we are seeing 105 days of inventory, improving from the 110 we measured last month and the lowest number of days of inventory since February 2006. The average days inventory since January 2001 is 174, so we have a significant under-supply of homes for sale through ARMLS.

Supply continues to drop while demand remains relatively strong. However that demand is not evenly distributed across the price ranges. In the last month we have seen the market strengthen at the low end while losing a lot of momentum at the middle and high end. Compared with July 2010, this month saw dramatic sales growth for single family homes below $100,000 but above that figure the picture is mixed. A few ranges performed fairly well, notably $100K->$125K, $175K->$200K, $400K->$500K and $1.5M->$2M, but there was a huge hole at the very top end of the market. Last year we had eleven closed sales over $3,000,000 during July and this July we have just one. Sales volumes are also down between $225K and $400K and between $600K and $1.5M. As you can imagine, an increase in the volumes under $100,000 pulls the average sales price and the average sales price per sq. ft. down substantially. The sales weakness in the higher range exacerbates this. However all that buying at the low end has caused the median sales price to stay fairly strong and it has barely changed over the last seven months.

As is normal when a market is attempting to recover from a long and disastrous plunge, there are plenty of conflicting signals:

Signs That Prices Are Going to Go Down
•    The average list price per sq ft for pending listings continues to drift downwards, down 1.5% in the last month.
•    The average asking price per sq. ft. for normal listings has fallen by 1.6% in the last month.
•    Monthly average sales prices are making fresh lows.

Signs That Prices Are Going to Go Up
•    The average asking price per sq. ft. for lender owned homes has risen by 7.4% in the last month.
•    Sold price as a percentage of list continues to go up.
•    Remarkably few listings are being canceled or expired.
•    Investors are now purchasing nearly 40% of the properties auctioned at trustee sales in Maricopa County.
•    Average days on market for closed sales is coming down.

Signs That Price Are Going to Stay Flat
•    The average asking price per sq. ft. for short sales and pre-foreclosure has barely moved in the last month.
•    Median sales prices are essentially flat.

So you can take your pick. It seems to me that although the supply/demand imbalance is becoming extreme, demand from investors alone is unlikely to sustain a significant upward price movement. We may have to wait until the general public realizes the degree to which the reality and perception of the supply picture have diverged, so that fear of missing out on a bargain overcomes the fear of prices dropping yet further.

There are still many sources claiming that a “new tidal wave of foreclosures” is going to hit the Phoenix area. This is pure imagination and reminds me of the Y2K phenomenon in 1999. Despite a busy final week in July, the trustees of Maricopa County only issued 4,194 new notices of which 4,015 were residential. This compares with 8,140 in total and 7,802 residential for July last year. Foreclosure notices are down 48% to the lowest level since December 2007. As for actual trustee sales, we had 3,330 in July of which 3,176 were residential. This is 31% down from July last year and 36% below March this year. The trend is obvious and strongly downward and it seems we are about 75% of the way through the foreclosure tsunami of 2007-2012. This observation is only made about Maricopa County and is probably not true elsewhere, especially in states that use a judicial foreclosure process.


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3)  Phoenix-area foreclosure rate keeps dropping
July 12, 2011
Good news for the hard-hit Phoenix-area housing market: The rate of foreclosures continues to drop. A new report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University shows the rate has now fallen four months in a row.  Foreclosures represented 31 percent of the existing-home transactions in the market in June. That’s way down from 43 percent in January and February, 38 percent in March, 36 percent in April, and 35 percent in May. However, the report’s author says it’s still unclear whether the downward trend will last.

“Things are showing a lot of improvement, but we still have a long way to go, and some conditions affecting the housing market remain uncertain,” says W. P. Carey School of Business professor emeritus Jay Butler. “Even though the number of foreclosure prefilings has been declining for the last year, foreclosures continue to be the dominant force in the market. Recovery is moving at a glacial pace.”  The Phoenix-area housing market had almost 3,300 single-family home foreclosures in June. That’s down from about 3,500 in May and from more than 3,800 last June.  The median price for a single-family home resold in the Phoenix-area market in June (not new foreclosures) was $126,500. That’s up from $125,000 in May, but still significantly down from $143,000 last June.

“Although mortgage interest rates and prices are attractively low, tighter underwriting standards, a struggling economy and job market continue to be obstacles for the return of homeowner/occupants as the primary force in the market,” explains Butler. “Investors like the low prices now because they know they can sell in several years for a profit, but most people buy a home because they have confidence in their future, in their jobs, in their families. Until the economy really starts to recover, that confidence is lacking.” Butler also predicts another possible wave of resales in the future that could bring prices down again.  “If the market really starts to improve, many people who bought very cheap foreclosures may try to ‘flip’ their homes to lock in a profit, causing a surge in supply,” says Butler.  Overall, activity in the market is brisk, since we’re in the summer resale home season prior to the start of school and the holidays. About 10,500 single-family homes changed hands in June, similar to the 10,720 transactions last June.

In the townhouse/condominium market, more than 400 foreclosures happened in June. That’s way down from 585 foreclosures last June. The median resale price for a townhome/condo in June was $75,950, significantly down from $94,600 last June.

Butler’s full report, including statistics, charts and a breakdown by different areas of the Valley, can be viewed at http://wpcarey.asu.edu/realestate/Phoenix-Resale-Market-Reports.cfm


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4) Big Money Gets Into Landlord Game
Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2011
VALLEJO, Calif.—Agustin Gutierrez, a construction worker from this town in the hills northeast of San Francisco Bay, lost his job in 2009, then, 10 months later, he lost ownership of his home. Now, the husband and father of four rents the same five-bedroom ranch from McKinley Capital Partners, an investment company that's at the forefront of a new breed of big-money landlords. McKinley, which has acquired more than 300 foreclosed single-family homes in the Bay Area over the past two years, recently teamed up with Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, a New York hedge fund, with plans to buy at least 500 more foreclosed homes in the next year.  Those home will be rented to people like the Gutierrez family.

Buying foreclosed homes as investment properties has long been dominated by the small investors.  But now hedge funds, private-equity firms, pension funds and university endowments are dipping into that market.  The attraction is double-digit returns at a time when most bonds and other investment yield very little.  The most popular strategy is for a big investor to team up with a local company that scouts out houses and finds the renters.  The hope is to flip the homes in the future when prices recover.

All this activity is fueling a debate over whether investors are good or bad for the housing market.  In the early days of the housing bust, some community groups discouraged bank from selling foreclosed home to investors for fear they wouldn't take proper care of the properties. Some communities riddle with foreclosed home became slums.  Experts believe local governments should provide subsidies to investors who buy, rent out and are good landlords for foreclosed properties.  In neighborhoods with large numbers of houses going into foreclosure and sitting vacant it is far better to have an occupied house.

Government Considers Ways to Rent Foreclosed Homes

The Obama administration is examining ways to pull foreclosed properties off the market and rent them to help stabilize the housing market, according to people familiar with the matter.  While the plans may not advance beyond the concept phase, they are under serious consideration by senior administration officials because rents are rising even as home prices in many hard-hit markets continue to fall due to high foreclosure levels. Trimming the glut of unsold foreclosed homes on the market is "worth looking at," said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in testimony to Congress on July 15, 2011.

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5)  Real Estate News Briefs

A)  ForSalebyOwner.com Founder Uses Agent to Sell Home
DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | TUESDAY, AUGUST 09, 2011
The founder of a popular for-sale by owner Web site used a real estate broker to help sell his 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom New York apartment after it lingered on the market for six months. Colby Sambrotto, the founder and former chief operating officer of ForSalebyOwner.com, tried to sell the property himself by listing it online and through classified ads, but after six months of it sitting on the market, he sought the help of a real estate broker. Broker Jesse Buckler told Sambrotto the condo was priced too low and wasn’t attracting the right buyer for the condo.  "At first he wouldn't let me increase the price," Buckler said. "I told him I know what I am doing—the market is picking up."

The condo soon attracted multiple offers and ended up closing recently for $150,000 more than the original asking price.

B)  USDA Financing May End For Queen Creek, Maricopa and the San Tan Valley - August 2011

With the 2010 census numbers out, Queen Creek, Maricopa, and San Tan Valley are expected to have outgrown their rural status to qualify for USDA financing. The cutoff mark for rural designation for the USDA Loan is 25,000 residents.  According to the USDA the census shows that Queen Creek has a population of 26,361, while Maricopa has 43,482 residents and the San Tan Valley area, 81,321. All above the cutoff mark for rural designation of 25,000.  Dianna Jennings, a spokeswoman for the USDA in Phoenix, said those municipalities will still qualify for the guaranteed home loans until she is notified otherwise by headquarters in Washington, D.C.  USDA financing offers Zero down, no monthly mortgage insurance, no first time homebuyer restrictions, competitive interest rates, up to 6% seller contribution towards buyer's closing costs and no 90 day flip rule (ie buying a house that was purchased by an investor and put back on the market in less than 90 days).  It must be for your primary residence, limited to $93,400 max household income, no pools house has to appraise for the price without the pool if the property has a pool and there is a 3.5% funding fee that is financed into the loan, ie 103.5% loan to value.

To check the eligibility of a property http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do?pageAction=sfp&NavKey=property@11

As we experienced with the past boundaries changes there will be little to NO advance notice.  If you thinking about buying using USDA financing there is a sense of urgency to get it closed as soon as possible. Call us today so we can help you finalize your purchase right away.

C)  Chandler, Tempe get apartment complexes
The Arizona Republic, Russ Wiles - Aug. 13, 2011

Two new apartment complexes are on tap for the East Valley, including a Tempe project that developers say is the largest of its kind in the Valley in more than two years.  Work on the $29 million San Marquis Apartments, at Baseline and Rural roads, is under way and set for completion in late 2012. It will have 224 units.  It's a venture of Kitchell Development and Mark-Taylor, two firms with development and property-management experience.  The two companies also plan to break ground soon on a second and larger project, the 383-unit Parcland Crossing luxury apartment community at Loop 202 and Alma School Road in Chandler. That venture, with an estimated cost of $44 million, also is slated for completion late next year.
"We see multifamily as a key growth sector over the next several years," said Ryan Cochran, Kitchell's director of development, in a statement. "A number of our mixed-use developments will have a multifamily component."  Both developments will feature units from one to three bedrooms, ranging from 625 to 1,400 square feet. They also will include amenities such as resort-style pools, clubhouses and granite countertops. Monthly rents are expected to run from $850 to more than $1,600.  Leasing of units at both projects will begin in the first half of 2012.  US Bank is financing the Tempe complex, and Wells Fargo is providing lending on the Chandler project.  Phoenix-based Kitchell has offices in Arizona and California and employs about 1,000 people.  Scottsdale-based Mark-Taylor counts roughly 365 Arizona workers and operates in Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

D)  Arizona Center loses 3 tenants, gains bakery, new tenant expected this fall may lift shopping and office complex

The Arizona Republic, Emily Gersema - Aug. 13, 2011

Touristy trinkets, art and kitsch are in shrinking supply at the Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix. The shopping and office complex has lost three businesses that target tourists in the past month but is expected to gain a bakery soon. The latest closures include a clothing store, Jayne's Marketplace, and two tourism shops, Oak Creek and Hassayampa Trading Post.  The closures follow a spate that began last year with the shuttering of Pizzeria Uno Chicago Bar & Grill; the restaurant Hurry 4 Curry; a European clothing store, Da Vinci; a convenience store and Arizona Center Quick Mart.

There are some sparks of life in the sluggish market, though. The center is welcoming at least one new tenant. Downtown Phoenix Partnership officials have said a franchise bakery and restaurant, Corner Bakery Cafe, is coming in September.  More changes in tenants are expected over the next several months because the shopping and office center changed hands this year. An East Coast real-estate trust, CommonWealth REIT, bought the center in the spring for $136.5 million from General Growth Properties Inc.

In its younger years, the Arizona Center was touted by city officials as an economic driver for downtown, featuring nightclubs, restaurants, bars and stores. The complex has languished with frequent tenant turnover that began within years of its opening in 1990.  Corner Bakery Cafe is expected to open in the former Fat Tuesday spot on the northwestern corner, near the AMC Arizona Center 24 theater. It will be a fast-casual restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, and it will likely draw downtown workers and visitors from the Phoenix Convention Center.  Corner Bakery Cafe operates about 119 locations nationwide.  Some residents and downtown groups have called the Arizona Center a failure because it has not fulfilled its promise to rejuvenate downtown and add nightlife. The bars and comedy club that kept the center lively in the 1990s are long gone.  Owners of the remaining shops and restaurants hope the complex will come out of its slump.  "I'd like to see the center get some nightlife back again," said David Candland, president and owner of Mi Amigo's Mexican Grill in the middle of the center. "It's a beautiful center. It's nice architecturally. And it has beautiful gardens."  Candland's restaurant has been at the Arizona Center since 1995, and he has seen plenty of stores come and go. Some were not a good fit. "It's always better to have more activity," Candland said. "But it's also important to have the right kind of businesses."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/08/12/20110812arizona-center-downtown-phoenix.html#ixzz1Vc4fhwrd
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6) Mortgage rates fall again, 30-year near record low
Average rate on the fixed 30-year home loan fell to 4.32 pct., 15-year hits record 3.50 pct.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Aug 11, 2011
Fixed mortgage rates fell to at or near record lows. That's good news for the few who can afford to buy a home or are able to refinance. But the rates have done little to lift the ailing housing market. Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.32 percent this week from 4.39 percent. The 30-year loan hit a record low of 4.17 percent in mid-November. The average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, fell to a record low of 3.50 percent, from last week's record rate of 3.54 percent.  Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. A weakening U.S. economy has led many investors to shift money from stocks to bonds, which are seen as safer bets. That has pushed Treasury yields to historic lows.

In theory, low mortgage rates should provide a boost to the troubled housing market. But rates have been below 5 percent for nearly two years and haven't helped home sales much. Rates on the 30-year fixed loan were near 6.5 percent five years ago and higher than 8 percent in 2000.  Sales of previously occupied homes fell in June for a third straight month to a seasonally adjusted 4.77 million. The pace is lagging behind the 4.91 million homes sold last year -- the fewest since 1997.  New-home sales also declined in June and are trailing last year's sales, which were the worst on records dating back nearly half a century.  Many people can't take advantage of the low mortgage rates. Banks are insisting on higher credit scores and larger down payments from applicants. Others have too little equity invested in their homes to qualify for loans.  Historically low rates have helped fuel another boom in refinancing.

Applications jumped nearly 22 percent last week from the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinancing made up more than 75 percent of all mortgage activity, the group said. That's up from 70 percent the previous week and the highest level of refinancing this year.  Still, a higher number of refinancing applications is unlikely to have much economic impact. Many people have little or no equity in their homes. So they are not pulling money out when they refinance for home-improvement projects or other big expenditures. And many people already refinanced last year, when the 30-year loan fell to a record low.  To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.

The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage fell to 3.13 percent, its lowest level on records that go back to January 2005. Last week's reading of 3.18 percent also was a record low.

The average rate for one-year adjustable-rate loans plunged to 2.89 percent from 3.02 percent last week. That's a record low dating back to 1984.

The rates do not include extra fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.

The average fees for the 30-year and 15-year fixed loans was 0.7 point and the five-year and one-year adjustable-rate loans was 0.5 point.


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