30-Yr Conventional Mortgage Rate

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently met with congress to discuss potential solutions to the subprime crisis. The article suggests "the secretary hopes the mortgage industry will announce this week an interest-rate freeze on certain ARMs." The article does not describe the specifics of such a move, but such invasive action would surely be an indication that the crisis is much worse than expected. As far as data goes, the fear that subprime problems will bleed into the conventional mortgage rate market has yet to be realized. Though the following data has not been updated since early October, the market has significant breathing room before reaching historically high rates.