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Average rate on a 30-year mortgage drops to lowest level since October
The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in nearly 10 months, giving prospective homebuyers a sorely needed boost in purchasing power that could help inject life into a stagnant housing market.
The long-term rate fell to 6.58% from 6.63% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.49%.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate dropped to 5.71% from 5.75% last week. A year ago, it was 5.66%, Freddie Mac said.
Elevated mortgage rates have helped keep the U.S. housing market in a sales slump since early 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic. Home sales sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.
This is the fourth week in a row that rates have come down. The latest average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now at its lowest level since Oct. 24, when it averaged 6.54%.
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.
The main barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4.29% at midday Thursday, up slightly from 4.24% late Wednesday.
The yield has come down the last couple of weeks after weaker-than-expected July U.S. job market data fueled speculation that the Fed will cut its main short-term interest rate next month.
A Fed rate cut could give the job market and overall economy a boost, but it could also fuel inflation just as President Trump’s tariff policies risk raising prices for U.S. consumers.
Meanwhile, a new inflation report Thursday showed prices at the U.S. wholesale level jumped 3.3% last month from a year earlier. That’s was well above the 2.5% rate that economists had forecast, and it could hint at higher inflation ahead.
Earlier this week, the Labor Department said consumer prices rose 2.7% in July from a year earlier, unchanged from June.
Higher inflation could push bond yields higher, driving mortgage rates upward in turn, even if the Fed cuts its key rate.
Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% this year. Recent forecasts by Realtor.com and Fannie Mae project the average rate will ease to around 6.4% by the end of this year.
That may not be low enough to make a difference. While trends like declining home listing prices and more properties on the market in the Sunbelt and West now favor buyers, affordability remains a major hurdle for many aspiring homeowners.
Home price growth has slowed nationally, but the median sales price of a previously occupied U.S. home still climbed to an all-time high of $435,300 in June.
“Homebuyers who have been relegated to the sidelines by high financing costs got some encouragement in the past two weeks, but it remains to be seen if it’s enough to get more of them back in the game,” said Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com.
The recent drop in mortgage rates has spurred many homeowners to refinance, however.
Mortgage applications jumped 10.9% last week from the previous week as rates eased, boosted by homeowners seeking to refinance, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Home loan refinance applications made up nearly 47% of all mortgage applications. Refi loan applications jumped 23% from a week earlier — the strongest showing since April.
Meanwhile, applications for adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, soared 25% to their highest level since 2022, MBA said.
Many homeowners aren’t waiting for rates to ease further before refinancing. Cash-out home refinancing activity surged to a nearly three-year high in the April-June quarter, as homeowners tapped some of the equity gains built up after years of soaring home prices.
Liverpool have agreed to a British-record deal to sign striker Alexander Isak from Newcastle United, sources told ESPN.
The Premier League champions have had a £125M bid accepted to sign the Sweden international, who is expected to undergo a medical ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline.
It brings an end to one of the summer’s most-protracted transfer sagas, with Isak having spent more than a month agitating for a move away from Newcastle. The 25-year-old did not join the club on their preseason tour of the Far East and has not featured for Eddie Howe’s side this season.
He also released a sensational statement earlier this month in which he claimed promises had been “broken” by the Newcastle hierarchy and insisted a move this summer would be in the best interests of all parties.
Isak is now set to become the most expensive signing in Premier League history, surpassing Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo who joined the London club for £115M from Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer of 2023. It marks the second time this summer that Liverpool have broken their transfer record, with Arne Slot’s side having committed spending an initial £100M (plus a potential £16M in add-ons) to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen in June.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 250 people have been killed and over 500 have been injured in Afghanistan after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit the country, Taliban officials said Monday.
The earthquake struck 17 miles from the city of Jalalabad near the border with Pakistan around midnight local time (3:30 p.m. ET Sunday), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Because the earthquake hit a remote mountainous area, “it will take time to get the exact information about human losses and damage to the infrastructure,” said Sharafat Zaman, a spokesperson for the Afghan Public Health Ministry.
“We have launched a massive rescue operation and mobilized hundreds of people to help people in the affected areas,” Zaman said.
Since the initial quake, at least five aftershocks ranging from 4.5-magnitude to 5.2-magnitude have hit the area throughout Monday, according to the USGS.
Aftershocks can last for days and can sometimes be worse than the first quake.
Afghanistan is especially vulnerable to earthquakes as it sits on top of several fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian plates meet. The mountainous terrain of eastern Afghanistan is also prone to landslides, making it harder for emergency services to carry out rescues.
This quake was especially devastating as it hit at a shallow depth of 5 miles, making it far more destructive even at moderate magnitude.
In 2022, around 1,000 people were killed and thousands more were injured when a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan.
That, too, was a shallow quake.
The next year, three 6.3-magnitude quakes hit the western Afghanistan province of Herat in one week, killing around 1,500 people, according to the U.N.
Monday’s quake comes at a challenging time for Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, which is suffering from four consecutive years of drought and the influx of over 2.3 million Afghans who have returned from Iran and Pakistan this year.
“Below-average first and second season crop production and reduced livestock income limit their ability to stock food for the winter,” the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which was established by the United States Agency for International Development, said in a report last week.
Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
After a drama-filled Saturday, college football’s opening weekend kept right on rolling with more intrigue on Sunday.
No. 13 South Carolina and Virginia Tech got things started in another SEC vs. ACC clash. Gamecocks QB LaNorris Sellers showed flashes of brilliance in a 24-11 win over the Hokies, but it was vintage Beamer Ball that put South Carolina over the top with a game-changing 80-yard punt return by Vicari Swain. That’s right, Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer used his legendary dad’s style to beat his former team.
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In the evening game, No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 10 Miami played out a thriller at Hard Rock Stadium. The Hurricanes were in control throughout before a late rally by the Irish tied things up at 24. But Miami kicker Carter Davis drilled a 47-yard field goal with just over a minute left in the game and the Hurricanes defense held on for a 27-24 win.
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See how it all played out below:
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