Mortgage rates dipped a bit this week, still holding steady around the mid-6% range while demand remains weak in the housing market.

Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage ticked down to 6.46% this week from 6.49% last week. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 7.23% a year ago.

"Although mortgage rates have stayed relatively flat over the past couple of weeks, softer incoming economic data suggest rates will gently slope downward through the end of the year," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. "Earlier this month, rates plunged and are now lingering just under 6.5 percent, which has not been enough to motivate potential homebuyers. We expect rates likely will need to decline another percentage point to generate buyer demand."

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The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage declined to 5.62% from 5.66% last week. One year ago, the rate on the 15-year fixed note averaged 6.55%.