Square Feet: Mortgage rates mixed this week

Mortgage rates edged lower this week, at least for 30-year fixed-rate loans, according to . And even as home sales continue to slump, homeowners are taking advantage of the relatively low rates and refinancing their mortgages.

Nationwide, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was at 6.15 percent this week, down from 6.16 percent the week before and 6.58 percent a year earlier. Fifteen-year fixed-rate mortgages -- a popular choice for refinanced loans -- were at 5.87 percent, the same as last week and down from 6.17 percent a year earlier.

"Despite a slowdown in house price growth, borrowers continue to refinance their loans, extracting approximately $70.5 billion in cash from their home equity in the first quarter of 2007, down slightly from $77.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006,' Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft said in a statement.

"Low employment growth in April -- the slowest pace since November 2004 -- and downward revisions to both February and March job growth tempered market concerns of future increases in the rate of inflation,' Nothaft said. "As a result, mortgage rates were little changed this week.'

Rates on other popular loans:

One-year adjustable-rate mortgages: 5.48 percent, up from 5.42 percent last week, but down from 5.62 percent a year ago.

Five-year hybrid ARMs: 5.89 percent, up from 5.87 percent last week, but down from 6.22 percent a year ago.