Washington, Aug 30 (IANS): US fixed mortgage rates fell for the first time in five weeks on speculation that the US Federal Reserve may delay scaling back its bond purchases, according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey released by Freddie Mac.

The US mortgage giant Thursday said the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) fell to 4.51 percent in the week ending Aug 29, after hitting a two-year high of 4.58 percent in the previous week, Xinhua reported.

The 15-year FRM, a popular choice for those looking to refinance, edged down to 3.54 percent this week after rising to the highest level since July 2011 in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the five-year treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) edged up to 3.24 percent, and the one-year treasury-indexed ARM fell to 2.64 percent.

"The Fed is monitoring the housing market closely after the run up in mortgage rates over the past few months," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

"The 13.4 percent drop in new home sales in July led financial markets to speculate whether the Fed might delay reducing its bond purchases and allow long-term bond yields and fixed mortgage rates to decline over the week," he added.

Nearly 40 percent of 220 economists believed the Federal Reserve would not begin to wind down its stimulus programme until the fourth quarter of this year, according to a survey released Monday by the National Association of Business Economists.