Mortgage rates fall to decades-low level

Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dropped this week to their lowest levels in at least 37 years, as the Federal Reserve pledged to pour money into the mortgage market in an effort to spur the moribund U.S. housing market.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.19 percent, down from the year’s previous low of 5.47 percent, set last week.

The rate is the lowest since Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage rate survey began in April 1971.

A daily survey found that the national average rate fell even lower Wednesday. The rate on 30-year fixed mortgages was 5.06 percent, according to financial publisher HSH Associates, the lowest since the 1960s and down from 5.3 percent Tuesday.