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It looks like mortgage rates are settling down for the short term as rates dropped 5 basis points this past week. The rates for a 30 year mortgage are still 1.2 percent higher than they were a year ago when the rate was at 5.66%.

Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac reported Thursday that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages slipped to a nationwide average of 6.74 percent this week from 6.79 percent last week.

Housing sales, which have set records for five straight years, are expected to decline by around 7 percent this year as higher mortgage rates make home ownership more expensive.

Rates also declined for other types of mortgages this week, according to the Freddie Mac survey.

• Rates on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, fell to an average 6.37 percent from 6.44 percent last week.
• Rates on one-year adjustable rate mortgages slipped to 5.75 percent from 5.83 percent last week.
• Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages declined to 6.33 percent from 6.39 percent last week.

The mortgages rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The 30-year mortgages carried a nationwide average fee of 0.6 point this week, while the average fee for 15-year mortgages was 0.4 point. The five-year ARM had an average fee of 0.5 point and the one-year ARM carried a fee of 0.6 point. via Yahoo! News.

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