Mortgage rates fall for 2nd straight week, Freddie Mac says

Mortgage rates fell for the second week in a row, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.76% from last week's reading of 6.81%.

The average rate on a 30-year loan was 7.22% a year ago.

"In recent weeks, rates for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage have fallen even lower than the first-quarter average of 6.83%," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist.

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The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage dipped slightly to 5.92% from last week's reading of 5.94%. One year ago, the rate on the 15-year fixed note averaged 6.47%.

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Americans have faced an affordability crisis and supply issues in the housing market for years, making it difficult for first-time homebuyers to enter the market.

"America is in a state of gridlock in terms of housing transactions where we’re really, for the last two years we’ve been hitting 30-year lows," Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales said during a recent "Mornings with Maria" appearance. "That’s largely because of high interest rates. Most American mortgages – in fact, 70% of American mortgages – are below 5%, so prevailing rates are closer to 6.8%, perhaps even going up shortly. Sellers are very reluctant to sell because they’re going to have to refinance at a much higher cost."

There is a supply gap of 3.8 million homes, according to a Realtor.com report released in March.

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Eales said Realtor.com was "optimistic that all of the moving parts of the economy will fall into place such that there can be easing of mortgage rates."

FOX Business' Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.