The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage ticked up for the first time in five weeks after falling to its lowest level in more than a year last week.<\/p>\n
The average long-term mortgage rate moved up to 6.22% from 6.17% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.79%.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s average rate the lowest since Oct. 3, 2024, when it was 6.12%.<\/p>\n
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week. The average rate rose to 5.5% from 5.41% last week. A year ago, it was 6%, Freddie Mac said.<\/p>\n
Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors<\/a>, from the Federal Reserve\u2019s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors\u2019 expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.<\/p>\n The 10-year yield was at 4.09% at midday Thursday, down from 4.16% Wednesday.<\/p>\n Lower mortgage rates boost homebuyers\u2019 purchasing power and benefit homeowners eager to refinance their current home loan to a lower rate.<\/p>\n The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has been stuck above 6% since September 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. The housing market has been in a slump ever since. <\/p>\n Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year<\/a> to their lowest level in nearly three decades. Sales have been sluggish this year, but accelerated<\/a> in September to their fastest pace since February as mortgage rates eased.<\/p>\n Mortgage rates began declining in July in the lead-up to the Federal Reserve\u2019s decision<\/a> in September to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid growing concern over the U.S. labor market<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Fed lowered its key interest rate again last week<\/a> in a bid to help boost the wobbling job market<\/a>. However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that there is no guarantee the U.S. central bank will cut again at its final meeting of 2025 in December.<\/p>\n The Fed could also pump the brakes on more rate cuts if inflation climbs further<\/a> amid the Trump administration\u2019s expanding use of tariffs<\/a>,<\/a> because lower rates can worsen inflation.<\/p>\n Bond investors demand higher returns as long as inflation remains elevated, so if inflation ticks upward that could translate into higher yields on the 10-year Treasury note, pushing up mortgage rates.<\/p>\n The central bank doesn\u2019t set mortgage rates, and even when it cuts its short-term rates that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean rates on home loans will necessarily decline.<\/p>\n Last fall after the Fed cut its rate for the first time in more than four years, mortgage rates marched higher, eventually reaching just above 7% in January this year. At that time, the 10-year Treasury yield was climbing toward 5%.<\/p>\n The broader pullback in rates has helped spur homeowners who bought in recent years after rates climbed above 6% to refinance their home loan to a lower rate.<\/p>\n Mortgage rates would have to drop below 6% to make refinancing an attractive option for many homeowners. That\u2019s because about 80% of U.S. homes with a mortgage have a rate below 6% and 53% have a rate below 4%, according to Realtor.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage ticked up for the first time in five weeks after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":360806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[175264,347,64,12042,79,266,32555,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-360805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-175264","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economic-policy","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-inflation","14":"tag-mortgages","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115505222456810806","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}