Print edition: 
Mortgage rates fell to the lowest level in decades for the ninth time in 10 weeks, but Wichita mortgage brokers say they think the rates are unlikely to get much lower.
With concerns growing about the economy, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan was 4.36 percent this week, down from 4.42 percent last week. That's the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan dropped to 3.86 percent from 3.90 percent the previous week. That's the lowest on records starting in 1991.
Rates have fallen since spring as investors shifted money into the safety of Treasury bonds, lowering their yield to around 4 percent. Mortgage rates tend to track those yields.
"It's crazy, isn't it?" said J.R. Rohr, branch manager of BNC National Bank in Wichita.
"I don't see it going much below this, but I didn't see it going lower two weeks ago, either."
Gary Schmitt, executive vice president for real estate lending at Intrust Bank, agreed.
Schmitt said he doesn't expect rates to fall more than another eighth to a quarter of a point.
"I think we're still close to the bottom," he said. "I mean, how low can you go? I think it's just a reflection of how troubled the economy is right now."
The low rates have fueled borrowers to refinance their home loans. Refinancing is at its highest level since May 2009 and made up 82.4 percent of all new loan activity.
However, low rates haven't budged home sales. Those have been stymied by high unemployment, slow job growth and strict credit standards, and have dropped sharply since the expiration of home-buying tax credits in April.
"Consumer confidence is still the biggest hurdle out there in Wichita," Schmitt said. "It's a great time to refinance a house. It's a great time to build a new home. It's a great time to buy a new home.
"But I've talked to Realtors and they're just not seeing the showings and the activity that you'd expect with these interest rates."
To calculate the national average, Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day.
Average rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages were unchanged at 3.56 percent. Rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to an average rate of 3.52 from 3.53 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac's survey averaged 0.7 points for 30-year and 1-year mortgages. They averaged 0.6 points for 15-year and 5-year mortgages.
In Wichita, brokers said they make about a point on each mortgage deal.
That point, though, has been eaten up by the extra paperwork and staff time created by tighter lending standards.
"We're doing heavy overtime to process the refis," Schmitt said.
"It takes more people to underwrite, process and close a loan than it did two years ago because of the new regulations and processes that are in place," Rohr said.
"The processes are good and they should have happened a couple of years ago. It just takes a lot more to get a deal done."
