In This Article:
US mortgage rates move a notch higher from last week, according to the fresh data out from Freddie Mac, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage inching back up to 6.81% and the 15-year rate moving to 5.92%.
Yahoo Finance housing reporter Claire Boston puts this mortgage print in the perspective of the economic environment, illustrated by the United States' trade truce with China and the Federal Reserve holding interest rates in May.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.
Mortgage rates for the week ending May 15th are out. Yahoo Finance's Claire Boston joins me now with the numbers. Claire, what do we see?
Hi, Brad. This week's 30-year mortgage rate is 6.81%. That is up slightly from 6.76% a week ago. 15-year mortgage rates are also running a little bit higher at 5.92% versus 5.89% a week ago. And what we are kind of seeing here is that mortgage rates actually rose because we got good economic news. Uh the big headline of course being the US and China reaching this temporary trade deal. Um generally speaking, now markets are seeing lower odds of a recession. That means the Fed is less likely to cut rates and as a result, bond yields and mortgage rates, they rose. Um so it's a little bit, you know, counter-intuitive for the market here, maybe not great news if you're looking to buy a home this week. But at the same time, lower recession odds are good for most consumers.
Yeah, that trade truce is at least bringing down the tariff rate between the two largest economies by GDP in the world for the time being in this pause. Now the larger question is, what will this do for some of the broader sentiment as well? Homebuilders, as we've continued to discuss, they're buying down some of those rates. And then additionally, as they're looking through some of the different materials, trying to make sure that it's not too much of an additive cost for the buyers. Speaking of the home buyers for a hot second here, the Freddie Mac chief economist saying stable mortgage rates coupled with moderately rising inventory are attracting home buyers into the market. Purchase application activity up 18% from last year.
Yeah, it depends on, you know, kind of what data you're looking at here. Um you know, one thing we are seeing is that this spring is, you know, maybe running a little bit better than last spring, but it we're not going gangbusters here, and I think a big part of the story is that the rates are still pretty high. At 6.81%, a lot of people are shut out of the market, home prices are still quite high, and so people are just staying on the sidelines here. And uh, you know, this spring probably won't be anything special, but um, you know, we're kind of in like high season right now. We've got a few more weeks to kind of see how this all shakes out.
All right, just to reiterate the numbers, 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaging 6.81% as of May 15th and 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaging 5.92%. Claire, thanks so much.
Thanks, Brad.