{"id":794057,"date":"2026-07-30T21:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/794057\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:02:19","slug":"mortgage-rates-hit-highest-level-in-a-year-amid-persistent-inflation-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/794057\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage rates hit highest level in a year amid persistent inflation fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mortgage rates in the U.S. hit their highest level in a year on Thursday as renewed tensions in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/us-iran-tensions\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Middle East<\/a> and the Federal Reserve&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/federal-reserve-interest-rates-kevin-warsh-july-206\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">interest rate decision<\/a>\u00a0this week fanned inflation concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The rate on a conventional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/federal-reserve-interest-rate-pause-july-2026-mortgage-rates\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">30-year mortgage <\/a>averaged 6.66% in the week ending July 30, the highest level since July 2025, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freddiemac.com\/pmms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">data<\/a> from Freddie Mac.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Inflation can drive up mortgage rates, which tend to track the bond market, particularly the 10-year Treasury yield. Those yields jumped after the Fed on Wednesday left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that decision, three members of the central bank&#8217;s rate-setting panel voted for a rate hike, fueling concerns that the Fed could eventually raise rates. Investors also appeared to question Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh&#8217;s commitment to raising interest rates to bring consumer prices under control.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>New government\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gdp-economic-growth-second-quarter-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">data<\/a>\u00a0released on Thursday shows the Fed&#8217;s preferred measure of inflation slowed in June, a hopeful sign, although inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank&#8217;s 2% annual target.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While it&#8217;s unclear if or when the central bankers might raise the funds rate, there&#8217;s plenty of concern that inflation&#8217;s running unchecked,&#8221; Kate Wood, a lending expert at NerdWallet, told CBS News in an email.\u00a0 &#8220;Between that and Iran, we&#8217;re seeing Treasury yields surge, and mortgage rates are being dragged up along with them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rate hikes ahead?<\/p>\n<p>Deutsche Bank expects the Fed to raise rates twice this year by a total of 0.50 percentage points, which would bring the federal funds rate to between 4% and 4.25%.<\/p>\n<p>Mortgage rates are also drifting higher amid concerns that fighting in the Middle East could accelerate inflation, as shipping disruptions in the region push up oil and fuel prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because oil remains the primary channel through which the Iran conflict feeds inflation, a de-escalation and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remain the clearest path back toward lower rates,&#8221; Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realtor.com\/news\/trends\/mortgage-interest-rates-now-july-30-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said<\/a> in an analysis.<\/p>\n<p>Hopes for a peace deal have unraveled as Iran and the U.S. continue to exchange strikes. The conflict appeared to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/us-iran-war-trump-saudi-arabia-strait-of-hormuz\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">expand to Egypt<\/a> on Wednesday after drone strikes caused two natural gas vessels to catch fire in Egypt&#8217;s Mediterranean port of Damietta.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__meta--editors\">\n      Edited by<\/p>\n<p>                                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/alain-sherter\/\" class=\"byline__author__link\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alain  Sherter<\/a>\n                      <\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p>\n                Go deeper with The Free Press\n              <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mortgage rates in the U.S. hit their highest level in a year on Thursday as renewed tensions in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101,5412],"class_list":["post-794057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-mortgage-rates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794057","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=794057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}