By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer
The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage edged higher this week to just above its 2025 low.
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Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, rose this week to 5.46% from 5.44% the previous week. A year ago it averaged 6.14%, Freddie Mac said.
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 4.17% at midday Thursday.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has been mostly holding steady in recent weeks since Oct. 30 when it dropped to 6.17%, which at the time was its lowest level in more than a year. Mortgage rates began easing in July in anticipation of a series of Fed rate cuts, which began in September and continued last month.
The Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, but when it cuts its short-term rate that can signal lower inflation or slower economic growth ahead, which can drive investors to buy U.S. government bonds. That can help lower yields on long-term U.S. Treasurys, which can result in lower mortgage rates.
All told, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage ended last year nearly a percentage point lower than at the start of 2025, helping boost home shoppers’ purchasing power toward the end of the year. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose on a monthly basis in September, October and November.
Still, even with long-term mortgage rates holding near their 2025 low point, sales in November slowed compared with a year earlier for the first time since May and ended the month on pace to finish the year down from 2024. December existing home sales data are due out next week.
The recent pullback in mortgage rates has been helpful for home shoppers who can afford to buy at current rates. The median U.S. monthly housing payment fell to $2,365 in the four weeks ending January 4, according to Redfin. That’s a 4.7% drop from the same period a year earlier.
While lower mortgage rates can help boost how much homebuyers can afford, the housing market remains out of reach for many aspiring homeowners, after years of soaring home prices and lackluster wage growth. First-time buyers have had it particularly tough, because they don’t have equity from an existing home to put toward a new home purchase.
Uncertainty over the economy and job market are also keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.
Economists generally forecast that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will remain slightly above 6% this year.
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