What’s happening with mortgage rates?

According to the Associated Press, the nationwide average for a 30-year mortgage declined to its lowest level since May 2013

Average long-term mortgage rates in the United States fell for the fourth consecutive week, a continuing boon for potential home buyers, and the number of people seeking unemployment benefits slipped below 300,000 last week, according to data released on Thursday.

The mortgage company Freddie Mac said the nationwide average for a 30-year mortgage declined to 3.89 percent this week, from 3.97 percent last week. It is now at its lowest level since May 2013.

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000, the Labor Department reported. Applications spiked in the previous week for the first time in nearly three months. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 4,750 to 299,000 for last week.

Applications for benefits are a proxy for layoffs. As fewer people seek unemployment benefits, it suggests that employers are holding onto more workers and potentially looking to bolster their hiring.

Applications have been under 300,000 for 11 of the last 12 weeks, an unusually low level that suggests employers are anticipating stronger economic growth. The four-week average for jobless claims has plummeted 9 percent over the last 12 months.

Such sharp declines in applications are unlikely to continue, analysts said. But at sub-300,000 levels, they point to better job gains in the Labor Department’s employment report, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“The trend probably has now flattened off, but at an extraordinarily low level, consistent with very strong payroll numbers,” Mr. Shepherdson said.

The November jobs report scheduled to be released on Friday is expected to show gains of 225,000 last month, according to the data firm FactSet.

Mortgage rates are about a half-point lower than at the beginning of the year, when the benchmark 30-year rate stood at 4.53 percent. Rates have fallen in recent weeks in the face of slowdowns in Europe and China and the start of a recession in Japan.

Mortgage rates have been falling despite the recent end of the Federal Reserve’s monthly bond purchases, which were intended to keep long-term rates low.

Puget Sound home prices increased nearly 16 percent

Housing prices climb as inventory drops in Puget Sound area

People are still hot to buy houses and condos in the Seattle metro area, where pending sales last month reached a nearly eight-year high for November. But for now buyers have fewer options because the number of residences on the market is dropping.

The median price of sold residences climbed throughout the Puget Sound region in November, with prices increasing nearly 16 percent over the same month last year to $245,000 in Kitsap County. Annual jumps were a more modest 6 percent to $313,000 in Snohomish County and in the 3 percent range in both King County, where the media price was $399,000, and Pierce County, where the median price was $227,000, according to data that the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) put out on Thursday.

Compared to October, the overall median price for last month’s sales fell by $1,000, though a county-by-county comparison shows a mix of slight gains and declines.

“During the holidays we usually see a drop in home buyers, but this year they’re remaining engaged later than usual,” OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, said in a statement. Recent buyers include people moving to Seattle as well as international buyers “who aren’t showing any signs of slowing.”

Pending sales of houses and condos hit 5,220 last month. That’s been the highest for November since 2006, when the number of mutually accepted offers reached 5,292, according to the NWMLS.

Low interest rates are fueling the market. Interest rates have dropped to the upper 3 percent range. Rates this low “are considered unbelievable,” John L. Scott Real Estate CEO J. Lennox Scott said.

Homeowners put fewer residences up for sale last month compared to November 2013. Last month, 11,575 houses and condos were on the market versus 12,067 the year before. Realtors chalk up the drop to some sellers wanting to focus on the holidays.

~ Marc Stiles, The Seattle Times