The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell for the fourth straight week, offering more relief for prospective home shoppers at a time when many have put off buying a home due to elevated home loan borrowing costs and prices. <\/p>\n
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. declined to 7.11% from 7.18% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.24%. <\/p>\n
The latest pullback brings the average rate to its lowest level since Sept. 24, when it was at 7.03%. <\/p>\n
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also fell again this week. That average rate dipped to 6.45% from 6.57% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.49%. <\/p>\n
Rates on home loans are influenced by inflation, Federal Reserve policy<\/a> and bond-market investors’ expectations for the economy, among other factors. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. <\/p>\n Until the past few weeks, mortgage rates had been on the rise since late February, when the U.S. war with Iran began<\/a>, pushing up the price of oil<\/a> and driving inflation higher<\/a>. The run-up in rates also reflected heightened bond market<\/a> volatility, which led to rising yields on U.S. Treasurys. <\/p>\n However, the 10-year Treasury yield has been mostly trending lower since early October, after climbing to its highest level since 2002. That’s caused the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to come back down after reaching 7.4% early last month, its highest level in nearly three years. <\/p>\n The 10-year Treasury yield was at 5.10% at midday on the bond market Thursday. It surged to more than 5.30% in early October, but remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran. <\/p>\n While rates have eased in recent weeks, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has stayed above 7% and could remain elevated for some time. Persistently high inflation<\/a> has raised the odds that the Federal Reserve will raise its key interest rate at its next meeting in December. It kept rates unchanged late last month<\/a>, after raising them<\/a> in September. <\/p>\n The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its decisions to raise or lower its short-term rate are watched closely by bond investors and can ultimately influence rates on home loans. <\/p>\n U.S. home sales have been in a rut this year, mostly due to elevated mortgage rates, which can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing power and prompting many to put off buying a home. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes declined last month<\/a> to their slowest annual pace in more than 16 years as mortgage rates surged. <\/p>\n In late February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage briefly dipped to 5.98%, its lowest level going back to late 2022. Going by the latest average rate, a home shopper financing a $400,000 home loan is now paying roughly $300 more a month than when the rate was just below 6%. <\/p>\n Depending on a borrower’s income, credit and other factors, they may qualify for a rate on a 30-year mortgage that is below or above the current average. <\/p>\n The U.S. housing market has been in a slump<\/a> since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell for the fourth straight week, offering more relief for prospective home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[5097,28,122,101,939,2993,2994,32455,2995,932,32456,20112,147,9323,1170,1666,6480,2996,2997,923,19533,3733,32457],"class_list":["post-915707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-401k","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-economy","tag-finance","tag-financial-information","tag-investing","tag-investment-tools","tag-investor","tag-market-news","tag-mortgage","tag-mutual-funds","tag-personal-finance","tag-quote","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-stock","tag-stock-research","tag-stock-valuation","tag-stocks","tag-suze-orman","tag-tax","tag-track-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915707","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=915707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}