This post comes from Marilyn Lewis at MSN Money.

Mortgage rates broke the historic 4% barrier this week. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan fell to 3.94% with an average 0.8 point paid, according to Freddie Mac's Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. (One point is 1% of the loan amount.)

That's the lowest rate Freddie has recorded. "Freddie Mac says the rates are the lowest since its survey began in 1971, and academic research suggests that rates for 30-year mortgages were as low as 4% -- but not any lower -- under a loan program for war veterans in the mid-1940s," says The Wall Street Journal.