After dropping slightly amid the economic turmoil over President Donald Trump’s new tariffs, mortgage rates headed up again.
In what Mortgage News Daily's Matthew Graham labeled the “Worst 24 Hours For Rates So Far This Year,” the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the United States hit 6.82% Monday, a jump from Friday’s low of 6.55%.
The 0.22% change means mortgage rates “moved from 2025’s lowest rates to (the) highest since late February in the space of 24 hours,” Graham reported on the North Carolina-based website that tracks rates for professionals as well as consumers.
CNBC’s Diana Olick called it a “big leap higher” Monday, amid the volatility of the stock market following Trump’s April 2 announcement that nearly every country in the world would be charged tariffs starting at 10% but significantly higher in some cases.
“We’ve seen a lot of day-to-day volatility as, of course, we have in the stock market,” Olick said. As financial markets around the globe plummeted, mortgage rates fell. But bond yields reversed the trend, she said, erasing any upside to mortgage rates from the stock sell-off.
“We’re right back to that very tight range that mortgage rates have been in really for the last month and a half,” Olick said. “But if you go back to the start of this year, rates were over 7% and then they dropped sharply in February.”
Still, there hasn’t been a robust response to lower rates. She said housing experts have told her that’s because “mortgage rates are falling, but for all the wrong reasons for homebuyers, reasons that don’t make consumers want to go out and make a huge purchase like a home.”
Redfin, the nation’s largest brokerage website, also said consumers “tend to shy away from big decisions” when the economic outlook is so unclear.
“Tariffs could lead to homebuyers and sellers potentially facing an extended period of economic uncertainty. There may be some mortgage rate relief, but that is far from certain,” the Seattle-based site posted Monday, adding, “mortgage rates could go down, or up, or sideways.”
But Utah’s Jeremy Holmgren, Zions Bank state mortgage manager, said would-be homeowners shouldn’t be discouraged.
“Don’t let short term market volatility negatively impact your long term home buying decisions,” Holmgren said. “Stay updated and informed by your mortgage professional to help determine your best options. It’s still a good time to buy real estate despite the market fluctuations.”