Mortgage rates may keep rising, even though the Federal Reserve made no changes at its July meeting.
The weekly average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. was up to 6.66% as of Thursday, a 0.08 percentage point boost from the previous week, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac.
But U.S. News & World Report posted an even higher average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage, 6.863%, citing data from the online real estate marketplace Zillow and suggesting rates likely will “stay relatively elevated over the next few years.”
National Mortgage Professional managing editor Czarinna Andres was more blunt about the impact of the Federal Reserve’s split vote on keeping the current commercial bank borrowing rate in place, with three of the 12 members favoring a quarter-point increase.
“The Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady Wednesday, but mortgage professionals and homebuyers looking for reassurance that borrowing costs are headed lower did not get it,” she wrote Thursday, calling the decision “a warning” for the mortgage market.
Because mortgage rates are tied to long-term U.S. bond yields that jumped on the news, “a Fed hold is not a mortgage-rate reprieve,” Andres said. Her advice to mortgage lenders, brokers and loan originators: “Prepare borrowers for rates to remain elevated” and expect greater rate volatility.
The daily index posted by Mortgage News Daily had rates heading up after Wednesday’s Fed announcement before dipping by 0.01 percentage points to 6.77% by midday Thursday. A week ago, the daily index was at 6.85%, the highest in more than a year.
Mortgage News Daily’s Matthew Graham posted the slight drop is “very good news” given Wednesday’s reaction because of the “risk that bonds (which dictate rates) would continue their protest. The absence of additional drama suggests the reaction was ‘one and done.’”
The latest ups and downs for mortgage rates come as the war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran six months ago continues to rattle the economy by driving up energy prices and fueling inflation.
The potential of lasting inflationary effects “likely contributed to the Fed’s decision to leave rates on hold as policymakers wait to gauge the economic fallout,” CNBC reported economists as saying, a sentiment seen as driving up bond yields.
“It may take either another lower-than-expected inflation reading or an uptick in jobless claims before mortgage rates can break below their current range,” Jeff DerGurahian, LoanDepot’s chief investment officer and head economist, told CNBC.
