Mortgages
Rate: 5.7 percent (30-year fixed) Average Points: 0.48Mortgage rates fell a bit this week as markets awaited the release today of the June employment report.
The average 30-year fixed-rate fell 10 basis points, to 5.7 percent. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
This week's average 15-year fixed-rate -- a popular option for refinancing -- fell 9 basis points, to 5.07 percent.
The average jumbo 30-year fixed fell 12 basis points, to 6.91 percent.
Adjustable-rate mortgages were split. The 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose 5 basis points, to 5.17 percent. The popular 5/1 ARM fell 9 basis points, to 5.17 percent.
In other news, the Obama administration expanded the number of people who will be eligible for mortgage refinancing under the Making Home Affordable plan. Previously, the plan was open to homeowners who owed up to 105 percent of the value of their homes. Now homeowners will be allowed to refinance for up to 125 percent of their homes' values. This could increase the number of people eligible for refinancing in the states that were hardest hit by the housing bust: Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada.
And the Obama administration proposed a bill to create an agency that would consolidate the consumer protection divisions of various regulators under one roof. The new entity, called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, would require lenders to offer plain-vanilla mortgages, even while pitching riskier alternative products.
To find and compare mortgage rates in your area, visit Bankrate's interactive search tool.
-- Holden Lewis