Mortgage rates stayed steady this week.
On Thursday, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, reported the weekly U.S. average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate remained at 6.75% for a second week.
A posting on the Freddie Mac website offered an upbeat assessment of the current situation.
“At this time last year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 30 basis points higher and purchase applications were declining. Today, rates are lower and have remained stable for weeks, sparking continued increases in purchase applications,” it said.
The last change in the weekly average rate was a slight drop to 6.81%, reported on April 24.
Another measure of interest rates, a daily index from Mortgage News Daily, showed rates creeping up Thursday. By mid-afternoon, the site said a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was up 0.05 percentage points to 6.91%.
The new numbers come a day after the Federal Reserve left the current benchmark interest rate in place as expected.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday the thinking was that “right now, the appropriate thing to do is to wait and see how things evolve.” He said “there’s so much uncertainty” surrounding the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
Trump’s on-again, off-again plans to impose new tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the world have already roiled financial markets and led to mortgage rates briefly climbing above 7% for the first time since January.
Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow, said after the fed announcement “affordability has marginally improved” for buyers, with mortgage rates down from a year ago and more homes for sale.
Still, what’s supposed to be the busiest season of the year for home sales has gotten off to a slow start.
This spring, Ng said, “newly pending activity has slowed compared to last year, despite this slight improvement in affordability. Peak policy uncertainty in April likely played a role in buyers waiting. However, for a buyer who is ready to buy, now represents an opportunity.”
Chen Zhao, the leader of the economics team at Redfin, the nation’s largest brokerage website, suggested mortgage rates may not be headed up but likely won’t be dropping any time soon, either.
“Looking ahead, with the dual risk of higher inflation and unemployment putting the Fed in a bind, it is difficult to imagine any relief for mortgage rates without a fairly severe recession,” she said.
Zhao forecast there will likely be “fewer 2025 rate cuts than the three that bond market investors are currently expecting” to start in June. She said mortgage rates should stay largely unchanged with the Fed’s “noncommittal” approach.