Mortgage giant, Freddie Mac announced this week that mortgage rates have hit an all time low for the 9th time in 10 weeks. Mortgage rates on 30 year fixed rate mortgages have continued to decline since the spring of this year. Although the rates have continued to fall, home sales don't seem to be moving as the unemployment rate and high credit standards seem to be blocking forward motion in sales.

Although the expiration of the FED program that pumped $1.25 trillion into mortgage backed securities spiked concern with economists that mortgage rates would rise significantly, the European Debt crisis caused investors to shift funds into safer US Treasury bonds. As the mortgage rates are so closely tied in with long term treasury bonds, they can change drastically even on a given day.

Freddie Mac collects rates from lenders across the nation weekly Monday through Wednesday. The rates this week came in at 4.36%, reflecting the lowest rates since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.