Headline Roundup • January 14th, 2025
Mortgage Rates Top 7%
Housing And Homelessness,Mortgage Rates,Interest Rates,Federal Reserve,Housing Market,Economy And Jobs,Banking And Finance
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The average new 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate is 7.01% as of Jan. 14, a seven-month high. It was at 6.93% last week.
For Context: Mortgage rates have been above 6% since late 2022 following a decade of rates between 3-4%. Starter homes are also becoming less common. A starter home is typically under 1,400 square feet. In 1982, 40% of homes being built were starter homes, while just 9% of homes built today are. In 2024, the median age of a first-time home buyer climbed to 38, an all-time high.
Key Quote: “It is such an unusual market because we have an all-time low of first-time home buyers, but an all-time high of all-cash buyers,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.
Why Didn't Fed Rate Cuts Help?: Fed rate cuts often lead to lower mortgage rates as well, but mortgage rates have increased since the Fed cut rates. “The best benchmark for mortgage rates is the ten-year treasury. Yields, unfortunately, are the highest they have been in over a year, and that typically means we will see rates continue to tick up until this settles down,” said Sarah DeFlorio, vice president of mortgage banking at William Raveis Mortgage. She noted concerns about global unrest, inflation data, and concerns tariffs could raise inflation more.
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Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
U.S. mortgage rates are back at their highest level since last summer, frustrating home buyers waiting for a break from some of the steepest borrowing costs in more than a decade.
Home sales have shown signs of a rebound in recent months, but those gains have come despite costlier financing, a weight economists say is continuing to drag on a full-fledged housing recovery.
The average new 30-year fixed-rate mortgage cost 6.93% this week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That is the most expensive since July. Mortgage rates have been stuck firmly above 6% since late...
Interest rates on mortgages are on the rise, with the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increasing to 6.93 percent last week. Mortgage rates have remained above 6 percent since 2022, making it more expensive to finance a home and aggravating housing market woes.
On the eve of the pandemic, the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate stood at 3.51 percent, according to the Federal Reserve Economic Data. This decreased to 2.65 percent in early January of 2021 during the Pandemic, but then rose significantly throughout 2022 to over 6 percent. The rate peaked at 7.79 percent...
The calendar has turned to a new year, bringing with it a tricky environment for mortgage borrowers to navigate. Closing out the year on a positive note, mortgage rates fell by a full percentage point after the Federal Reserve delivered three consecutive rate cuts. The moves dropped the federal funds rate — the rate banks charge to lend each other money — from a range of 5.25% to 5.50% in September to 4.25% to 4.50% in December.
Inflation also trended downward in 2024, though the decline wasn't significant. A year ago,...
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