By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer The average rate on a 30-year U. S. mortgage edged higher for the third week in a row, though it remains close to its low point this year. The average long-term mortgage rate ticked up to 6. 26% from 6. 24% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6. 84%. Three weeks ago, the average rate was at 6. 17%, its lowest level in more than a year. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also inched up this week. The rate averaged 5. 54%, up from 5. 49% last week. A year ago, it was 6. 02%, Freddie Mac said. When mortgage rates rise they reduce homebuyers’ purchasing power. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has been stuck above 6% since September 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. That’s helped kept sales of previously occupied U. S. homes stuck at around a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023. Historically, sales have typically hovered around 5. 2 million a year. While sales have been sluggish this year, they received a boost this fall as mortgage rates eased, remaining below 6. 4% since early September. Last month, they accelerated to their fastest pace since February. 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. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The 10-year yield was at 4. 10% at midday Thursday. That’s down slightly from from a week ago, but up from around 3. 95% on Oct. 22. Mortgage rates began declining this summer ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision in September to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid signs the labor market was slowing. The Fed lowered its key interest rate again last month, although Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that further rate cuts weren’t guaranteed. Wall Street traders have reduced their bets that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its next meeting in December, now giving it a roughly 44% probability, according to data from CME Group. That’s down from nearly 70% a couple of weeks ago, but better than the 30% chance before the release Thursday of the delayed September jobs report. The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, and even when it cuts its short-term rates that doesn’t necessarily mean rates on home loans will necessarily decline.
https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2025/11/20/mortgage-rates-nov-20/
