Average US long-term mortgage rate eases to 6.37% after rising five weeks in a row

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate eased this week, a modest relief for prospective homebuyers who have been facing higher borrowing costs as mortgage rates climbed to the highest level in nearly seven months. The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate dropped to 6.37% from 6.46% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.62%. This week's decline in rates follows five straight increases. When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for home shoppers, limiting what they can afford to buy. The average rate is now back to roughly where it was two weeks ago. Meanwhile, borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased this week. That average rate dropped to 5.74% from 5.77% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.82%, Freddie Mac said. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors' expectations for the economy and inflation. Only six weeks ago, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage had dropped to just under 6% for the first time since late 2022, an encouraging move for home shoppers just as the spring homebuying season was about to begin. But then the war with Iran began, sending oil prices surging higher and stoking worries about higher inflation. Those expectations of higher inflation helped push up the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds, which banks use as a guide to pricing home loans. The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.28% in midday trading on the bond market Thursday, down slightly from 4.3% a week ago. The yield was at just 3.97% in late February, before the war with Iran broke out. Higher inflation could also keep the Fed from cutting interest rates. 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 affect the yield on 10-year Treasurys. Bond yields began to ease this week after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, but any relief to mortgage rates may prove short-lived, said Jiayi Xu, an economist at Realtor.com. "Until a more permanent resolution emerges, the fog of uncertainty is unlikely to fully lift from the housing market," Xu said. The U.S. housing market has been in a slump 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. They have remained sluggish so far this year, declining in January and February versus a year earlier. While mortgage rates are down slightly from a year ago, their recent upward trend has discouraged some would-be homebuyers and homeowners seeking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate. Mortgage applications overall fell 0.8% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Further mortgage rate increases threaten to put a damper on home sales during what's traditionally the busiest time of the year for the housing market.