Fixed mortgage rates relaxed this week, showing rates either remaining unchanged or dropping slightly, Freddie Mac said in its Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

The 30-year, fixed rate was 3.53% for the week ending Feb. 7, the same as last week, but down from 3.87% a year before.

The 15-year, FRM dropped to 2.77%, down from 2.81% last week and down from 3.16% last year.

Meanwhile, the 5-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.63% this past week, down from 2.70% and down from 2.83% a year earlier. 

Additionally, the 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.53% this week, down from 2.59% last week and down from 2.78% last year.

“Mortgage rates were either unchanged or lower this week following a mostly positive employment data report for January,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac.

He added, “In January, the economy gained 157,000 new jobs and revisions to November and December added another 127,000 workers.  On top of that, the annual benchmark update showed payrolls grew by an additional 424,000 jobs between April 2011 and March 2012. The only downside to the report was that the unemployment rate ticked up from 7.8% to 7.9% in January, which is still historically high.”