National averages for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages reached a new low in Freddie Mac’s weekly report, finishing at below 3.5 percent for the first time in the six-decade history of long-term mortgages.

According to the Freddie Mac-conducted mortgage rate survey, 30-year home loans went down from 3.53 percent last week to 3.49 percent, while the 15-year fixed-rate mortgages also reached record lows, dropping from 2.83 percent to 2.80 percent.

This was also the 13th time in 14 weeks that historical lows for 30-year mortgages were either reached or tied. In other statistics culled by Freddie Mac over the week, fees for 30-year loans remained steady at 0.7 point, while fees for 15-year loans were up slightly, from 0.6 last week to 0.7 this week. Five-year adjustable rate mortgages or ARM loans were up in terms of average rate, from 2.69 to 2.74 percent, with the fee stable at 0.6 point.

Despite these low mortgage rates contributing to the American real estate industry’s recovery from the housing crisis of a few years back, recovery has been painfully slow. Several factors have contributed to the lack of activity required to drive a full-blown recovery. Not everyone is able to qualify for the historically low mortgage rates, and many of those who can had already refinanced quite recently.

The job market also remains slow to recover, as only 80,000 jobs were created in the month of June. The unemployment rate remained steady at 8.2 percent last month. This, and other economic concerns, have caused many buyers to become reluctant to purchase a new home.