The national news is enamoured in the decline of mortgage rates.? This is nothing new to me as I have been predicting this for quite sometime on Subprime Blogger.? On January 12th, 2009, I made the following prediction:

30 Yr Fixed Rate – 4.96% – This will be HUGE news if it breaks below 5%.? It will be the first time the average has been under 5% since the survey started collecting data in 1971.

This is very close to what rates are now, over three months later.? I also successfully predicted that rates would hover around 5% until the psychological barrier of 5% was broken again after that week in January.? It took an injection of over $1 trillion into long term treasuries and mortgage back securities but we are now under 5% on mortgage rates and it is likely that we will see them go lower.

Is this the lowest level mortgage rates have ever been?? As far as a monthly average, March is likely to show the lowest mortgage rates since Freddie Mac began tracking data in 1971.? January 2009 mortgage rates averaged 5.05% which is likely to be eclipsed by March 2009.? What makes this even more important to borrowers is that these rates are actually attainable unlike January.

In January, mortgage rates averaged 5.05% but those who were attempting to refinance had a great deal of trouble due to the appraisal process.? Many home owners did not realize that their homes were not worth as much as they owed and this put a halt to the refinance process.? Now that the Making Home Affordable Refinance Plan has been put in place, you can owe up to 105% of your home value and still have a chance to refinance.? President Obama and his administration are strongly urging you to refinance your home or get that first mortgage.

On Monday I will make the mortgage rate predictions for the data that comes out on Thursday, March 26th.? With rates currently being 4.98%, I am sure many home owners are wondering where the bottom will be.? I would never try to time the bottom of a market as you are likely to get burned.? No one can be certain when rates will bounce, but I will do my best to give you the knowledge and analysis you need.