The average long-term US mortgage rate slips to 7.76% in first drop after climbing 7 weeks in a row
The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan fell slightly this week, ending a seven-week climb —- modest relief for prospective homebuyers grappling with an increasingly unaffordable housing market
LOS ANGELES — The average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan fell slightly this week, ending a seven-week climb — modest relief for prospective homebuyers grappling with an increasingly unaffordable housing market.
The decline brought the average rate on a 30-year mortgage down to 7.76% from 7.79% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.95%.
As mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford in a market already out of reach for many Americans. They also discourage homeowners who locked in far lower rates two years ago, when they were around 3%, from selling.
The combination of rising mortgage rates and home prices have weighed on sales of previously occupied U.S. homes, which fell in September for the fourth month in a row, grinding to their slowest pace in more than a decade.
The average rate on a 30-year home loan climbed above 6% in September 2022 and has remained above that threshold since. Rates have risen along with the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing loans. Investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and what the Fed does with interest rates can influence rates on home loans.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury had been rising in recent weeks, jumping to more than 5% last week, its highest level since 2007, as bond traders responded to signals from the Federal Reserve that the central bank might have to keep its key short-term
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