by Calculated Risk on 7/22/2011 02:29:00 PM

Freddie Mac reported this week: 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage Ticks Up To 4.52 Percent

Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), which shows mortgage rates changing little over the previous week following mixed economic and housing data. The 30-year fixed average 4.52 percent and the 15-year fixed averaged 3.66 percent.

To put this into perspective, here is a long term graph of 30 year mortgage rate in the Freddie Mac survey:

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

The Freddie Mac survey started in 1971. Mortgage rates are currently near the low for the last 40 years (mortgage rates close to this range in the '50s).

The monthly low was 4.23% in October 2010.

The second graphs shows refinance activity and mortgage rates:

This graph shows the MBA's refinance index (monthly average) and the the 30 year fixed rate mortgage interest rate from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey®.

It takes lower and lower rates to get people to refi (at least lower than recent purchase rates).

With 30 year mortgage rates still about 0.3 percentage points above the lows of last October, mortgage refinance activity has only picked up a little recently.