Mortgage rates at 37-year low: average 5.19% for 30 years
The market has begun to tick upwards in the area. Although the winter season is normally a little slow, we have actually seen both showing and contract activity improving substantially from the same time last year. I believe most of this is due to the smart Buyers taking advantage of incredible mortgage rates and snatching up solid home values.
Although many people consider Washington D.C. area recession proof, I do not believe that is correct. However we are recession resistent and we have not seen the violent down swings that other parts of the country have endured.
This is a great time to buy. As Warren Buffett says “I sell greed and buy fear”. That strategy has worked pretty well for him 
This article was in the USA Today published December 19, 2008.
(USA) — Mortgage rates are falling to levels unseen since the 1960s, driving a surge in home refinancings among credible borrowers.
The government’s efforts to aid the mortgage market have driven rates to near 50-year lows, says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of financial market researcher HSH Associates. Refinancings have tripled in the past month as a result, he says.
“This is an historic opportunity,” Gumbinger says. “This is the program for borrowers not in trouble.”
Mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac reports the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slid to 5.19% this week, the lowest since Freddie Mac started its weekly mortgage market survey in 1971. The 30-year rate was 5.47% last week and 6.14% a year ago.
This week’s drop was helped by the Federal Reserve’s decision Tuesday to cut a key interest rate to a record low and its pledge to give the ailing mortgage market more help if necessary.
The low rates stand to help tens of millions of homeowners cut monthly payments, which could result in more spending on goods and services and lift the economy, says Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.
The big questions are whether rates will go lower and how long they’ll stay down.
Homeowners should act now because rates aren’t likely to go much lower and they tend to rise faster than they fall, Savitt and Gumbinger say.
