Weekly mortgage rates stayed basically unchanged this week. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose one basis point to 6.85% in the week ending July 30, according to rates provided to NerdWallet by Zillow. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.<\/p>\n
Mortgage rates are likely to hover where they are for the time being. The Federal Reserve<\/a><\/strong> just voted to keep short-term interest rates the same as central bankers continue their \u201cwait-and-see\u201d approach.<\/p>\n The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (which includes the Fed\u2019s preferred inflation<\/strong><\/a> measure) won\u2019t be released until Thursday, and the latest jobs report comes out on Friday. This left the Fed without enough recent data to change direction today.<\/p>\n Markets anticipated this decision, with Fed watchers predicting that central bankers wouldn\u2019t cut rates until September at the earliest. If incoming data points to cooling inflation numbers, it will likely boost investor confidence that a 25 basis point cut may be announced on September 17. Lenders would bake this into rate offers ahead of time, meaning that we could see mortgage rates<\/strong><\/a> begin to drop in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Potential barriers to a September rate cut<\/p>\n Mortgage shoppers shouldn\u2019t get too excited about lower rates just yet. With seven weeks between now and the next Fed meeting, a September rate cut is far from certain.<\/p>\n Central bankers could decide not to change rates if they don\u2019t have enough data to chart a clear trajectory for inflation and unemployment. The Trump administration\u2019s monetary policies are quickly evolving, which could make it more difficult for the committee to point to definitive economic trends.<\/p>\n A massive slate of new tariffs<\/strong><\/a> are due to take effect on August 1, after getting postponed in April. We\u2019ve seen the initial results of earlier tariffs on markets, though import taxes for key trade partners like Canada, Mexico and South Korea still need to be hammered out.<\/p>\n Despite insistence from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that \u201cvery few products are actually going to move their price,\u201d central bankers may not be convinced that the impact of these new tariffs on inflation will be apparent enough by September.<\/p>\n If tariff updates and two major economic reports weren\u2019t enough, Q1 earnings for nearly a third of S&P 500 members \u2014 including four of the \u201cMagnificent Seven<\/strong><\/a>\u201d U.S. tech giants (in this case Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple) \u2014 will also be released this week. This will influence investor sentiment about the current health and robustness of U.S. financial markets.<\/p>\n Why you\u2019re hearing more about the Fed<\/p>\n