Mortgage rates bounced up this week.
The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the United States rose to 6.3% for the week that ended Thursday, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac.
That’s up from 6.23% for the previous week. A post on the Freddie Mac site noted purchase applications have risen more than 20% above where they were a year ago, thanks to rates having “modestly declined the last few weeks.”
The average rate for the typical mortgage had been heading down from a seven-month high of 6.46% at the start of April. Just before the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran at the end of February, that rate had dipped below 6% for the first time since 2022.
The war is still impacting rates, according to Mortgage News Daily, which listed a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 6.44% midday Friday. Wednesday, the site’s daily index showed rates spiking to 6.5% on news that the blockade of Iran’s Straight of Hormuz would likely continue.
“As has been the case for most of the past 2 months, interest rate movement was clearly correlated with oil prices,” Mortgage News Daily’s Matthew Graham said in a Thursday post on the site.
Friday, he noted mortgage rates saw “moderately big increases” at the start of the week, but that volatility had calmed down, a resilience “most easily attributed to a slew of headlines suggesting that peace negotiations are at least being attempted by the U.S. and Iran.”
What comes of that “is the most likely source of volatility for rates next week,” he said.
Jeremy Holmgren, Zions Bank Mortgage senior vice president, told the Deseret News that would-be homebuyers should be paying attention to world events.
“If there’s something we’ve learned about mortgage rates over the last few months, t’s how much the global environment affects those rates. It’s been interesting to watch the news and then see markets respond to those reports,” Holmgren said.
“It really proves how global our economy is and how important it is to stay informed about current events,” he said, adding that it remains “important to consult with a mortgage lender about how to manage the current interest rate environment and find the right mortgage.”
That’s especially true, Holmgren said, for first-time homebuyers.