Average rate for 30-year mortgage drops to 3.78 percent

WASHINGTON » Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, remaining near historically low levels at the start of the spring home-buying season.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday the national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to 3.78 percent from 3.86 percent last week.

The average rate for a 15-year mortgage, popular with homeowners who refinance, slipped to 3.06 percent from 3.10 percent last week.

A year ago the average 30-year mortgage stood at 4.32 percent and the 15-year mortgage at 3.32 percent. Mortgage rates have remained low even though the Federal Reserve in October ended its monthly bond purchases, designed to hold down long-term rates. The Fed has kept short-term rates near zero for over six years, and signaled Wednesday that it’s still not ready to start raising them.

On The Move

» CBRE has appointed Stan Iwamoto as a senior project manager in Hawaii. He has 30 years of experience in project development and management in Hawaii, including successfully managing construction projects, renovations, planning and budgeting for numerous projects.

» The Maui Memorial Medical Center Outpatient Clinic has announced the following new physicians, who will provide specialty emergency on-call services for the hospital as well as see patients in the new clinic:

— Dr. Robert Millan Dy specializes in gastro enterology and served as a chief of gastroenterology at Straub Clinic & Hospital in Honolulu.

— Dr. David J. Engle specializes in neurosurgery. He was with the University of Pittsburgh Physicians and Medical Center, where he also was a clinical assistant professor of neurological surgery at the medical school.

— Dr. Don Wilton Hill specializes in oncology/hematology and was in private practice in Casa Grande, Ariz., at Tri-Valley Cancer Research and Treatment Center.