Mortgage rates dipped into the 5% range for the first time since 2022 as Treasury yields continued to fall.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell three basis points for the week ending Wednesday to 5.98%. That’s the lowest level since Sept. 8, 2022. The 15-year fixed rose nine basis points to 5.44%.
Three months of a slow interest rate decline have filtered through the mortgage industry, with increasing reports of home loan rates finally slipping below 6%. Freddie Mac is the latest rate aggregator to record a sub-6% result, with a 30-year fixed rate of 5.98%.
The report mirrors the Yahoo Finance weekly survey of lenders, which has reported a growing number of mortgage issuers with rates in the 5% range since early November.
“For the first time in three and a half years, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped into the 5% range, falling even lower than last week’s milestone,” Sam Khater, chief economist of Freddie Mac, said in a release. “This rate, combined with the improving availability of homes for sale, is meaningful and will drive more potential buyers into the market for spring homebuying season.”
Treasury yields have been falling since the beginning of February, amid stock market anxiety over the acceleration of AI, tariff uncertainty, ongoing inflation concerns, and the possibility that another Fed rate cut could be delayed.
“While buying power has already increased $30,000 from last year, mortgage rates below 6% could be an important psychological threshold,” Kara Ng, senior economist for Zillow, said in an analysis. “Round numbers mToday’s mortgage rates
Here are the current mortgage rates, according to the latest Zillow data:
30-year fixed: 5.74%
20-year fixed: 5.58%
15-year fixed: 5.37%
5/1 ARM: 6.00%
7/1 ARM: 5.83%
30-year VA: 5.46%
15-year VA: 5.05%
5/1 VA: 4.79%
Remember, these are the national averages and rounded to the nearest hundredth.atter, and that headline alone could prompt many sidelined buyers to take another peek at the housing market.”