{"id":30709,"date":"2024-08-09T02:33:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T07:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30709"},"modified":"2024-08-09T03:39:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T08:39:14","slug":"average-rate-on-30-year-mortgage-falls-to-6-47-lowest-level-in-more-than-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30709","title":{"rendered":"Average rate on 30-year mortgage falls to 6.47%, lowest level in more than a year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in more than a year, a welcome affordability boost for prospective home shoppers<\/a> and homeowners looking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rate fell to 6.47% from 6.73% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.96%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the second straight weekly drop in the average rate. It\u2019s now the lowest it\u2019s been since mid-May last year, when it was 6.39%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week, pulling the average rate down to 5.63% from 5.99% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.34%, Freddie Mac said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe decline in mortgage rates does increase prospective homebuyers\u2019 purchasing power and should begin to pique their interest in making a move,\u201d said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac\u2019s chief economist. \u201cAdditionally, this drop in rates is already providing some existing homeowners the opportunity to refinance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After jumping to a 23-year high of 7.79% in October, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has mostly hovered around 7% this year \u2014 more than double what it was just three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elevated mortgage rates, which can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, have discouraged home shoppers, extending the nation\u2019s housing slump into its third year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in June for the fourth month in a row.<\/a> And sales of new single-family homes fell last month to the slowest annual pace since November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rates have mostly eased in recent weeks as signs of waning inflation<\/a> and a cooling job market<\/a> have raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate next month<\/a> for the first time in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the central bank\u2019s interest rate policy decisions. That can move the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s drop in mortgage rates follows a pullback in the 10-year Treasury yield, which briefly slid last week to around 3.7% after worse-than-expected labor market data rattled investors, pushing up demand for bonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The yield, which topped 4.7% in late April, was at 4% in afternoon trading in the bond market on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If bond yields continue to decline in anticipation of the Fed lowering rates this fall, that could lead mortgage rates to ease further, though most economists expect the average rate on a 30-year home loan to remain above 6% this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, the recent pullback in mortgage rates has already spurred a surge in homeowners seeking to refinance. Applications for mortgage refinance loans jumped last week to their highest level in two years.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rates may have to come down more before many would-be homebuyers facing record-high housing prices and a chronic shortage of properties on the market can afford to buy a home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuyers are biding their time, waiting for rates to fall further and for more inventory to come onto the market,\u201d said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in more than a year, a welcome affordability boost for prospective home shoppers and homeowners looking to refinance their home loan to a lower rate. The rate fell to 6.47% from 6.73% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[30002,30003],"class_list":["post-30709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-6-47","tag-term-mortgage-loan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30711,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30709\/revisions\/30711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}