Buying A Home In The US: Mortgage, Loan Rates Drop

This article originally appeared on the Motley Fool.

There's not much change in mortgage rates today. The shorter-term 15-year fixed rate declined 0.03% to 3.03%. Meanwhile, adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) rates ticked upward. The 5/1 ARM and 5/1 ARM refinance rates jumped 0.04% and 0.08%, respectively. The 5/1 ARM offers a fixed rate for five years, then adjusts based on the prevailing rates.

Here are today's average mortgage rates across the U.S., along with where they stood a month ago.

While a couple of the rates rose a bit, today's homebuyers are still enjoying relatively cheap loans compared to 10 years ago. For some perspective, here are a few of the rates as of April 2007.

For existing homeowners researching a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or equity loan, there's been a slight change in rates today. HELOC rates stayed at 5.30%, while equity loan rates inched up 0.01% to 5.30%. Both equity loan alternatives are above last month's respective rates of 5.13% and 5.21%.

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