30-year fixed mortgage rate falls below 3 percent to lowest level in history

The bottom has yet to be reached as mortgage rates achieved a new low for the fourth time in the past five weeks.

According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average tumbled to 2.98 percent with an average 0.7 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount and are in addition to the interest rate.) It was 3.03 percent a week ago and 3.81 percent a year ago. Since November 2018, when it was 4.94 percent, it has fallen nearly two percentage points.