Mortgage rates fell for the third week in a row on signs that businesses are reluctant to hire.<\/p>\n
The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 14 basis points to 6.11% APR in the week ending Oct. 16, according to rates provided to NerdWallet by Zillow. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.<\/p>\n
Just three weeks ago, the average rate was almost a quarter of a percentage point higher, at 6.35%.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s been moving rates<\/p>\n
This year, mortgage rates<\/a> have been pushed and pulled in opposite directions by two economic forces. Inflation has pushed mortgage rates upward, while unsteady job creation has pulled rates lower. They fought to a draw for the first seven months of the year.<\/p>\n But the outlook has changed since the beginning of August. A slowdown in hiring has been at the top of policymakers\u2019 minds, and mortgage rates have fallen.<\/p>\n \u201cThe labor market is weak,\u201d said Christopher Waller, a Federal Reserve<\/a> governor, in an Oct. 10 interview on CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box\u201d program. He implied that the slump in hiring could translate into Fed rate cuts.<\/p>\n Waller is on the Fed\u2019s rate-setting committee, so his words sway markets. So do the utterances of the Fed\u2019s chair, Jerome Powell, who said in an Oct. 14 speech in Philadelphia, \u201cIn this less dynamic and somewhat softer labor market, the downside risks to employment appear to have risen.\u201d<\/p>\n Translation from Fedspeak: Businesses aren\u2019t hiring enough people, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the unemployment rate rises.<\/p>\n The central bank cuts the overnight federal funds rate<\/a> when the economy sheds jobs. Lower interest rates are designed to stimulate more hiring. They do that by encouraging businesses and consumers to borrow money. The Fed lowered the federal funds rate in September. Investors overwhelmingly expect the Fed to reduce it again at its next meeting, Oct. 28-29, and again at the Dec. 9-10 meeting.<\/p>\n What it means for buyers and refinancers<\/p>\n The Fed doesn\u2019t control mortgage rates, but its actions exert an indirect influence on mortgages. The expectation of more Fed rate cuts could pull rates lower in coming months.<\/p>\n \u201cWith signs of softer economic momentum and a cooling labor market, mortgage rates may drift slightly lower through 2026,\u201d said Kara Ng, senior economist for Zillow Home Loans, in a statement.<\/p>\n Ng expects rates to drop a little, not a lot. \u201cEven with modest rate relief, affordability remains a challenge for home buyers,\u201d she said. But she pointed out that buyers have gained negotiating power because homes are staying on the market longer, giving house hunters<\/a> more time to choose.<\/p>\n Lower rates provide an opportunity for refinancers, too. It might be worth looking into a mortgage refinance<\/a> if you can reduce your interest rate by half a percentage point or more. A refinance could be especially enticing for homeowners with interest rates north of 7% \u2014 people who bought homes from late summer to fall 2023, the spring of 2024 and early this year.<\/p>\n More From NerdWallet<\/p>\n Holden Lewis writes for NerdWallet. Email: hlewis@nerdwallet.com.<\/p>\n The article Weekly Mortgage Rates Fall as Hiring Stalls<\/a> originally appeared on NerdWallet.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mortgage rates fell for the third week in a row on signs that businesses are reluctant to hire.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-234678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}