For the second straight week rates for 30-year home loans dipped slightly lower, but still remains above the record low recorded last year.
Freddie Mac reported this week that the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now at 4.93 percent which is down from 4.97 percent from last week.
Early last December 30-year rates dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent which was aided by an aggressive government campaign to reduce consumers' borrowing costs.
Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates from lenders around the country from Monday to Wednesday of each week.
As a result from a $1.25 trillion Federal Reserve program to buy up mortgage securities which is scheduled to run out at the end of March, mortgage rates have been at or near record lows for months.
The concern from many analysts is that once the program ends mortgage rates might begin a slow climb, which in turn may hurt or slow the housing market recovery as well as the overall economy.
These rates do not include points which are add-on fees to a mortgage. As an example one point added to a mortgage is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.
Freddie Mac's national survey has shown that 30-year loans average out to about 0.7 points.