How low can home mortgage rates go? They keep falling.

The interest rate for a 30-year mortgage fell for the eighth time in nine weeks, according to a widely watched survey, with the record lows triggering the highest volume of home refinancing in 15 months.

Freddie Mac’s weekly report on lenders said solid borrowers with 20% down payments or home equity were being offered 30-year fixed-rate loans at an average of 4.42% this week, down from 4.44% a week earlier. The borrowers would have paid 0.6% of the loan amount in upfront lender fees.

The average 30-year interest rate recorded by the survey has not risen in nine weeks, although it remained flat at 4.57% for the weeks ending July 8 and July 15.

One reason is the terrible housing market. Homeowner confidence in the real estate market has dipped again.

Homeowners(i) are more pessimistic about the short-term future of home values in their local market than they have been in the past three quarters, according to the Zillow second quarter Homeowner Confidence Survey(ii). One-third (33 percent) believe home values in their local housing market have not yet reached a bottom, while 38 percent believe they have already reached a bottom.

Clearly, the foreclosure crisis has a long way to go.

Where do things stand now with U.S. banks? It’s been quite a roller coaster ride for the past 3 years, and now we may be heading into a new phase with the passage of financial reform.

In many ways it’s too early to gauge how FinReg will impact the banks in the long run, let alone the U.S. economy and ordinary Americans. But it looks like the consumer protection agency may be a game-changer. Banks have relied on hidden fees for a long time to prop up their profits, so that easy money will likely be reduced in the future.

Meredith Whitney was on CNBC the other day, and she remains skeptical of bank profits with the passage of the new law, and the disturbing fact that the banks still need time to remove toxic assets from their books.