Arizona Real Estate Notebook

30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending April 5, 2007. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 3/8/2007.

“Mortgage rates have remained within a narrow band of 0.1 percentage points over every week in March,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “This relative stability is due to mixed economic data releases as to how strong the economy is and whether future inflation will recede. One bright spot this week came from an unexpected increase in pending home sales for February, which suggests the housing market is still healthy