Sharp Decline in Mortgage Rates This Week

Mortgage rates declined Tuesday after the Federal Reserve said it would spend $600 billion to support the mortgage securities market.

Rates fell to 4 7/8 percent, a 1 1/8 percentage point decline. David Beadle, president of BestInfo, said it was the sharpest one-day decline since 1988.

"I hope that the effect is that it brings more investors home to investing in housing," said Alfred DelliBovi, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York. “[Investors] have had a sense in the markets that anything connected with a mortgage is bad" even though most people pay their home loans, he said.

Source: Reuters News, Al Yoon and Lynn Adler (11/25/2008)