Freddie Mac: Mortgage Rates to Stay Low in 2012

NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Freddie Mac(FRE) is out with some predictions for 2012, and front and center is the sentiment from the mortgage giant that mortgage rates will remain low in 2012.

Right now, those rates are as low as they've ever been. The BankingMyWay Weekly Mortgage Rate tracker stands at 4.125% for fixed 30-year mortgages and 15-year mortgages are a bargain at 3.5%, with the five-year adjustable-rate mortgage at 3.01%.

Freddie Mac is out with some predictions for 2012.

Those rates are low enough, but the chief economist at Freddie Mac says that's right where they'll stay in 2012.

Frank Nothaft, writing in a Freddie Mac blog this week, says rates should continue scraping the bottom at least until the middle of next year.

Nothaft's commentary also notes that the Federal Reserve policy on interest rates, which drives the mortgage rate market, should remain unchanged.

"This should keep fixed rates for 15- through 30-year product relatively low during the first half of the year, with rates edging up during the second half," he says. "Further, the Federal Reserve's August announcement that it was likely to maintain its current federal funds target through mid-2013 ensures that initial-period interest rates for one-year and various hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages will remain extraordinarily low throughout 2012."