Information contained in this week's primary mortgage market survey from Freddie Mac showed that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.26 percent for the week ending July 17, 2008. This figure is down significantly from last week's average, which was 6.37 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.73 percent.

In addition to this decline, th 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.78 percent this week. Just last week, the number held near 5.91 percent. The government-sponsored enterprise reported that a year ago at this time, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.38 percent.

In other news, the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 5.80 percent this week, down from last week when it averaged 5.82 percent. A year ago, the 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 6.35 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages were also down this week, averaging 5.10 percent, down from one week ago when it averaged 5.17 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 5.72 percent.

"Mortgage rates fell this week amid market speculation that the Federal Reserve may not raise the overnight bank-lending rate this year after all," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's vice president and chief economist.

"Some of the factors motivating the change in market perceptions this week included retail sales for June rising at the slowest pace since February and consumer sentiment in July holding at low levels not seen since 1980," Nothaft added. "In addition, in his July 15th semi-annual testimony before Congress, Fed chairman (Ben) Bernanke indicated that the FOMC participants had considerable uncertainty surrounding their outlook for economic growth."