Mortgage rates in most categories were down for the third straight week in the Freddie Mac Weekly Mortgage Survey for the week ended January 20.

30-year fixed rate mortgages are now down a total of 0.10 percent since the first weekly report for 2005, at 5.67 percent. Rates for the week ending January 13 were 5.74 percent.

15-year rates dropped by a smaller percentage, from 5.19 to 5.15 percent while the new category of 5/1 ARMs was unchanged at 5.05 percent. The one-year ARM was up .01 percent to 4.11 percent.

Fees and points did rise by .01 across the board. 15-year, 30-year, and 1-year ARMs are now at 0.7 while the 5/1 is at 0.6.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly report, while concluding that rates were slightly different than did Freddie Mac, none-the-less confirmed the pattern. 30-year fixed were down to 5.64 percent from 5.70 percent the previous week; 15-year were down 0.03 percent to 5.14; and 1-year ARMs decreased to 4.13 percent from 4.16. MBA uses different criteria for calculating points and fees, and unlike Freddie, showed substantial (0.09 to 0.11) decreases for fixed rate mortgages and a 0.03 increase for ARMs.

MBA’s Market Composite Index, which tracks mortgage applications, was up 16.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier but showed a 27.4 percent decrease from the index one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activities decreased 0.1 percent as did the share of adjustable rate mortgages as a percent of the total written

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