The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.66% from 6.62% last week, mortgage buyer
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, eased this week, bringing the average rate to 5.87% from 5.89% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.52%,
The latest increase in the average rate on a 30-year home loan follows a nine-week string of declines at the end of last year that lowered the average rate after it surged in late October to 7.79%, the highest level since late 2000.
Still, the average rate on a 30-year home loan remains sharply higher than just two years ago, when it was 3.45%. That large gap between rates now and then has helped limit the number of previously occupied homes on the market by discouraging homeowners who locked in rock-bottom rates from selling. It has also crushed homebuyers' purchasing power at a time when home prices have kept rising even as sales of previously occupied
“Mortgage rates have not moved materially over the last three weeks and remain in the mid-6% range, which has marginally increased homebuyer demand,” said
The overall decline in mortgage rates since late October has loosely followed a pullback in the 10-year
Housing economists expect that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will decline further this year, though forecasts generally see it moving no lower than 6%.
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