Arizona Real Estate Notebook

30-year fixed-rate mortgage, average in Western U.S. for week ending June 28, 2007. Blue line is Freddie Mac forecast made 6/7/2007.

“Mortgage rates edged down slightly for the second week in a row after having risen over the previous month and a half, and as financial markets prepared for the June 28th Federal Open Market Committee’s announcement on monetary policy,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

“This week we saw further effects of the current housing recession. May’s existing home sales (including condominiums and co-ops) fell 0.3 percent to the slowest pace since June 2003, and the number of months houses were available for sale rose to 8.9, the longest since June 1992. In addition, home prices fell 2.1 percent in twenty metropolitan areas for the year ending April 2007, according to the S&P/Case Shiller® composite index, the largest year-over-year drop since the data began in January 2001.”