The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell again this week, slipping close to its low point so far this year.<\/p>\n
The decline brings the average long-term mortgage rate to 6.19% from 6.23% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.69%.<\/p>\n
This is the second straight weekly drop in the average rate after three straight increases. It\u2019s now at the lowest level since Oct. 30, when it was at 6.17%, the lowest level in more than a year.<\/p>\n
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week. The rate averaged 5.44%, down from 5.51% last week. A year ago, it was 5.96%, 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 4.1% at midday Thursday. That\u2019s up from about 4% last Wednesday.<\/p>\n Declining mortgage rates boost homebuyers\u2019 purchasing power. <\/p>\n Easing mortgage rates this fall helped lift sales of previously occupied U.S. homes in October<\/a> on an annual basis for the fourth straight month. <\/p>\n Still, affordability remains a challenge for many aspiring homeowners after years of skyrocketing prices. Uncertainty over the economy and job market are also keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.<\/p>\n While U.S. economic growth appears solid<\/a>, hiring is sluggish<\/a> and the unemployment rate has ticked up<\/a>. <\/p>\n Mortgage rates began declining this summer ahead of the Federal Reserve\u2019s decision<\/a> in September to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid signs the labor market was slowing. The Fed lowered its key interest rate again in October<\/a>, and the general expectation is now that the central bank will cut its main interest rate when its policymakers meet again next week.<\/p>\n \u201cA December rate cut, which the market widely expects, could take further pressure off of mortgage rates as the year comes to a close, boosting buying power as the new year approaches,\u201d said Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com.<\/p>\n The Fed 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 Economists at Realtor.com, Zillow and Bright MLS generally forecast that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will remain slightly above 6% next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell again this week, slipping close to its low point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,109,101,8877,6498,12478,33203,9399],"class_list":{"0":"post-332043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economic-policy","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-federal-reserve-system","12":"tag-finance-business","13":"tag-financialbusiness","14":"tag-hannah-jones","15":"tag-mortgages"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332043","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=332043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}