Mortgage company Freddie Mac announced Wednesday that U.S. mortgage interest rates sunk to their lowest point on record during the latest week, as weak economic data indicated more troubled financial times ahead.

“Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages eased for the eighth straight week and set another record low since Freddie Mac’s survey began in 1971,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “Real GDP growth fell 0.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, pulled down by the largest drop in consumer spending since the second quarter of 1980. The market consensus calls for an even larger decline in the last three months of the year.

“The housing market, meanwhile, continues to contract. Existing home sales (excluding condominiums and co-ops) fell 8.6 percent in November to 4.0 million houses (annualized) in November, representing the slowest pace since July 1997. Moreover, the median sales price fell 12.8 percent from November 2007, the largest 12-month decline since records began in January 1968, according to the National Association of Realtors.”

The average commitment rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan fell to 5.14 percent, excluding fees, during the week ended December 24, 2008, down from 5.19 percent the previous week. One year earlier, the average rate was 6.17 percent.

Rates on 15-year fixed rate mortgages slipped to 4.91 percent, a four-and-a-half year low, down from 4.92 percent the week before.  Last year during the same time, the average commitment rate was 5.79 percent.

Rates on one-year Treasury-indexed adjustable rate mortgages also fell in the latest week to an average of 4.95 percent, down from 4.94 percent. One year ago, one-year ARMs carried an average rate of 5.53 percent.