d-m-c's query re mortgage rates

[Greg Nowell]

I looked for this data too and also drew a blank.  I
did read in Kindleberger's World in Depression that in
the 1930s there were no 30 year mortgages.  They had
some kind of 3 year mortgage that was payable in full
at the end of 3 years, and I don't know exactly what
that means, whethere there was some kind of automatic
rollover.  He doesn't explain it.  But it is the case
that mortgage rate history is likely to be more ocmplex
than other commercial rates.   The technical
construction of mortgages has varied.  Moreover, even
today the "national rate" reported in the press from
time to time represents an average of  "30 ytear
conventional mortgages" with those who pay points
average in with those who don't.  This means that the
ave4rage national mortgage rate is lower than the zero
point 30 year conventional mortgage, which to my mind
ought to be the benchmark.

-gn

--
Gregory P. Nowell
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, Milne 100
State University of New York
135 Western Ave.
Albany, New York 12222

Fax 518-442-5298