Mortgage rates took a breather this week, remaining largely unchanged after weeks of rising steadily.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was unchanged at 6.62 percent.

The average 15-year fixed -- a popular option for refinancing -- slipped 1 basis point, to 6.19 percent. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The average jumbo 30-year fixed ticked up 1 basis point, to 7.72 percent.

The one-year adjustable-rate mortgage moved up 5 basis points, to 6.27 percent. The popular 5/1 ARM rose 4 basis points, to 6.28 percent.

Mortgage applications fell for the fifth time in six weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. For the week ending June 20, applications fell a seasonally adjusted 9.3 percent when compared to one week earlier.

Refinancing fell by 12.1 percent, while applications for new purchases slid 7.4 percent.

Gloomy news continued to cast a pall over the nation's housing market. Nationwide, April home prices dropped 15.3 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index that measures 20 major cities across the country.

In addition, a just-released study by the Center for Economic Policy Research found that falling home prices are likely to dramatically reduce the personal wealth of people nearing retirement age.

Assuming that house values fall no lower than they were in March 2008, the study projects that by 2009, families in the 45-to-54 age cohort will have 26.2 percent less in total wealth than families in this age group had in 2004.

The situation will be even more ominous if home prices continue to slide by another 10 percent to 20 percent, as some experts predict.

The study's authors conclude that even if house values stabilize, "the cohorts just approaching retirement will have very little to support themselves in retirement other than their Social Security."

-- Chris Kissell

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