Mortgage rates make it easier for moving families to afford a loan

For a family looking to relocate to a new place, they first need to get an affordable mortgage for a property in the area. Record-low rates may be making that process easier.

According to the mortgage company Freddie Mac, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has now dropped to 4.36 percent - it's lowest point since the company began tracking the loans in 1971 and the ninth drop in the last 10 weeks. While the rate slipped only slightly from last week's 4.42 percent, it also represents a much more significant drop from the 5.14 percent rate from a year ago.

Despite a recent drop in home sales, analysts were optimistic about the state of the real estate market.

"House prices still appear to be stabilizing. Nationally, house prices rose 0.9 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis during the second quarter of this year after 11 consecutive quarterly declines, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's purchase only index. Eight of the nine census regions experienced positive gains, compared to none in the first quarter," said Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac.

The dropping interest rates also may be enough to motivate others interested in moving into their first home. A survey by Trulia earlier this year found that 27 percent of people interested in homeownership would buy a home in the next year if rates stayed low.