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By AMY HOAK

Home-mortgage rates fell this week, with long-term mortgage rates hitting their lowest levels in five weeks, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been below 5% for five of the last seven weeks, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates. The mortgage averaged 4.91% for the week ending Nov. 12, down from last week's 4.98% average. It averaged 6.14% a year ago.

Fifteen-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.36% this week, down from last week's 4.40% average. The mortgage averaged 5.81% a year ago. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.29% this week, down from 4.35% last week and 5.98% a year ago. And 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.46%, down from 4.47% last week and 5.33% a year ago.

To obtain the rates, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage required payment of an average 0.7 point, while the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, the 5-year ARM and the 1-year ARM required an average 0.6 point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

"Mortgage rates eased further over the week, helping to promote an affordable home-purchase market and stimulate refinance," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist, in a news release. "This comes at a time when house-price declines are moderating and consumer demand for prime mortgages at commercial banks has picked up."

Also on Thursday, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the volume of mortgage applications filed to purchase homes for the week ending Nov. 6 hit their lowest level in nearly nine years.

The volume of mortgage applications filed to purchase homes last week hit the lowest level in nearly nine years, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Thursday.

Applications for loans to buy homes fell a seasonally adjusted 11.7% in the week ended Nov. 6 from with the previous week--bringing volumes to their lowest since December 2000. The Washington-based MBA's weekly survey covers more than half of all applications filed for U.S. retail residential mortgages.