Mortgage Rates

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rates on 30-year mortgages are at their lowest level in a month as investors find new reasons to worry about a possible recession.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reports that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.07 percent this week.

That's down from 6.17 percent last week and is the lowest level for 30-year mortgages since the week of December 6th, when they fell to a two-year low of 5.96 percent. That marked the only time the 30-year mortgage was below 6 percent last year.

Analysts attribute the decline in part to some weaker-than-expected economic reports. The Institute for Supply Management reported that its closely matched gauge of manufacturing activity dipped to the lowest level in nearly five years.

A Freddie Mac economist says the fall in the manufacturing index could possibly be a "harbinger of a more substantial economic slowdown" at the start of 2008.