The economy may still be in recovery stages but recent reports show that momentum may regained really, really soon. Take for example the report on this week’s U.S. mortgage rates. With mortgage rates being at its lowest in the last 40 years, real-estate watchers are crossing their fingers that the market will pick up soon and banks will start helping more people with house purchases.

In a seven-day period that ended Thursday, numbers show that the 30-year mortgage rate is at its lowest ever since Freddie Mac tracked the said figures in 1971. The average 30-year mortgage rate tumbled from 4.36% to 4.32% last week. The number is also lower by 5.08% from 2009.

Good things in the housing market are already stemming from the depreciating rates. The low mortgage rates may have resulted to the unexpected growth in July pending sales – although the extension of tax credit for homebuyers may as easily have caused this as well.

The number of U.S. homes that entered escrow in July also went up by 5.2% vis-à-vis June’s numbers – the number though, is 19% short of last year’s statistics. The numbers are based on a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Homeowners, home buyers, and industry insiders alike are hoping for still better things. They hope that lenders might be encouraged by the low rates to up the number of homeowners who are allowed refinancing and thus lowering the digits on foreclosed homes.

House prices are also on their way to stabilizing; this is according to Freddie Mac deputy chief economist Amy Crews Cutts. In the 20 metropolitan areas listed in the composite index for home values, 15 saw increase in housing prices. The median home price in the U.S. was also 0.7% up in July as compared to last year’s.

The falling mortgage rates, though, may not necessarily mean a surge of approved home purchases and refinances. According to deputy chief economist of the California Association of Realtors Robert Kleinhenz, banks may just hold out until there’s surety in the improvement of the economy.

“Banks were burned by the events of the mortgage meltdown and do not want that to happen again. We don’t expect to see the lax lending standards of the 2000s show up again anytime soon, but banks may be able to ease standards a bit if they sense that economic conditions for households and consumers have stabilized or begin to improve,” says Kleinhenz.