Mortgage Rates Fall to 7.32%. Who Pays More?

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending October 22 shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.32%, down from last week's 7.40%. The 15-year fixed rate was 6.68%.

The decline offers some relief to prospective homebuyers but existing fixed-rate loan payments remain unchanged.

A year ago the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.19%.

Freddie Mac's PMMS is based on mortgage rates collected from thousands of loan applications submitted through Loan Product Advisor from lenders across the country.

Could this lower payments on existing fixed-rate mortgages? No; the new average applies only to new applications in the survey while existing fixed-rate payments generally stay the same.