Mortgage rates fell back under 5.5 percent this week

The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 11 basis points, to 5.48 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders. The mortgages in last week's survey had an average total of 0.29 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 5.88 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.64 percent."