Freddie Mac released the results of its weekly mortgage interest rate survey Thursday, which showed little change in long-term rates – a good sign for the nation’s fragile housing markets.

For the week ending October 29, Freddie reported that rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) averaged 5.03 percent (0.7 point). That’s up only minimally from last week when they averaged 5.00 percent, but a far cry from this time last year, when rates for 30-year FRMs were 6.46 percent.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s VP and chief economist, noted that interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages have averaged just below 5 percent throughout the year. He says it’s the lowest 10-month average the GSE has recorded since the survey began in 1971. “As a result, refinance activity has accounted for almost seven out of 10 mortgage applications on average this year,” Nothaft said.

The average rate for 15-year FRM this week came in at 4.46 percent (0.6 point), up slightly from last week’s average of 4.43 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM was 6.19 percent.

“Economic data releases this week offered mixed signals as to the current state of the housing market,” Nothaft said. “For example, total existing home sales jumped 9.4 percent to an annualized rate of 5.57 million homes in September, the strongest pace since July 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors."

Nothaft added, though, that “New home sales unexpectedly fell 3.6 percent to 402,000 houses, the weakest since June of this year, based on figures from the Department of Commerce."

“Nonetheless,” Nothaft says, “stronger housing demand has lowered the inventory of unsold existing homes in September to the lowest since January of this year and for new homes the lowest since November 1982, which should help stabilize falling house prices.”