Yahoo Finance

Mortgage rates for the week ending April 10th are out. Yahoo! Finances' Clare Boston joins me now with the numbers. Clare, home buyers got some relief last week, so what's the story today?

Yes, so Brad, the uh, 30 year mortgage rate is now at 6.62%. That is down slightly from 6.64%. The 15 year mortgage rate is absolutely flat at 5.82% this week. And these numbers are really interesting to me because this is a Freddie Mac survey, they run it Wednesday to Wednesday, and I think this is masking some of the volatility that we have seen in the bond market these days. Treasury yields fell really fast on Friday and then started rising earlier this week. And a lot of other surveys of mortgage rates are kind of showing rates headed back toward that 7% space. So I am really curious to see what rates do next week.

12th consecutive week under 7% here in the Freddie Mac chief economist saying, as purchase applications continue to climb, the spring home buying season shaping up to look more favorable than last year here, Clare. New data out from Redfin as well. It says that homeowners have to earn over $50,000 more than the average renter. So, how is that gap changing?

Right, so we are seeing a widening gap between what you need to buy a home versus what you need to rent. Redfin is saying now that the average American needs to earn $116,000 a year to afford the median priced home. And if you want to rent, you only need $64,000. And what we're seeing is basically just home prices have been rising faster than rents have been growing. And also, mortgage rates are still relatively elevated in this kind of like six-five, six-six space. That's just making it harder than ever for the average American to afford a home.

Clare, thanks so much for taking the time with us.

Thank you.