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Mortgages

Mortgages
US mortgage rates continue to climb
Mortgage rates continued to climb even higher last week, causing current and potential homebuyers to retreat from the market. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index, total mortgage application volume fell 4.4% compared to the week before. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, increased to 6.45% from 6.37%, with points rising to 0.66 from 0.61, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. “The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to push rates higher. Mortgage rates last week increased to their highest level in a month,” said Joel Kan, vice president and deputy chief economist at the MBA, in a release reported by CNBC. Application for a mortgage to purchase a home rose 4% week-over-week and 5% year-over-year. The spring market started very slowly when rates rose slowly in March. Recently, it looked like it was picking up again as rates fell back and more supply came onto the market, but buyers are still struggling with affordability. “The average loan size on a purchase application increased to $467,300, the highest in the survey’s history dating back to 1990,” Kan said
Mortgages
US mortgage rates fall for a third week in a row
Mortgage rates have fallen for the third week in a row, sending home buyers flocking to the market. The average contract for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with conforming loan balances, US$832,750 or less, dropped from 6.42% to 6.35%, with points falling to 0.61 from 0.62, including origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. “Mortgage rates declined last week as financial markets responded positively to the Middle East ceasefire and the lower trend in oil prices,” Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) senior vice president and chief economist Mike Fratantoni said in a release. Home-purchase applications rose 10.1% in the week ending April, according to data from the MBA. They were also up 14% year over year. “Despite the geopolitical uncertainty, housing demand is being supported by a still resilient job market, and homebuyers are experiencing a buyer’s market in most of the country given the higher levels of inventory relative to last year,” Fratantoni said. The MBA also found that cheaper home-financing costs helped drive up the refinancing index by nearly 6% for the week and 52% year-over-year. Mortgage News Daily reported that mortgage rates continue to remain volatile amid mixed signals from Donald Tru
Mortgages
Mortgage applications fall annually amid economic turmoil
Mortgage demand dropped for the first time this year as economic uncertainty fuelled by the Iran war keeps rates high, leaving homebuyers hesitant. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, total mortgage applications were down 0.8% week-over-week, despite rates falling slightly. The average 30-year-fixed-rate decreased from 6.57% to 6.51% for loans with a 20% down payment. Despite this fall, MBA economist Joel Kan said the higher rates and economic uncertainty continued to weigh on mortgage applications last week. “Many potential refinance borrowers have been frozen out by the sharp increase over the past month,” he said. “The pace of refinance applications was at its lowest level since December 2025.” While applications to purchase a home rose 1% from the week before, they were 7% lower than the same week a year ago. This marks the first year-over-year decline since January 2025. “However, certain loan types and geographic segments are faring better than others because of lower rates on ARM and FHA loans as well as growing housing inventory in some local markets,” Kan said. “Applications for FHA purchase applications were up 5% over the week, supported by the FHA mortgage rate being about 30 basis
Mortgages
US mortgage applications drop sharply as rates rise
United States mortgage applications fell sharply last week as mortgage rates reached their highest point since last August. Contract rates for 30-year fixed mortgages climbed by 0.14 percentage points to 6.57% for the week ending 27 March. Applications dropped 10.4% from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said. “The 30-year mortgage rate, now at 6.57 percent, reached its highest level since last August and is up half a percentage point from just one month ago,” said MBA SVP and chief economist Mike Fratantoni. “The headwinds of higher rates are being offset somewhat by the buyer’s market in many parts of the country – there are more homes for sale than buyers have seen in some time,” said Fratantoni. “However, the shocks of the jump in rates and the increase in overall economic uncertainty are likely having an impact on buyer confidence.” The MBA’s refinance activity index also plummeted 17% from the prior week, and is down by more than 40% from one month ago. Mortgage rates have risen by 0.48 percentage points since the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran at the end of February. While the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill to boost housing supply by cutting regulatory barriers in Mar
Mortgages
Fannie Mae to accept its first crypto-backed mortgage loans
Fannie Mae will accept cryptocurrency-backed mortgages for the first time under a new partnership between crypto exchange Coinbase and mortgage services company Better. Prospective home buyers will be able to pledge Bitcoin or USDC stablecoins as collateral to fund down payments, the companies said. “Better was founded to make homeownership more accessible for all Americans, and this partnership with Coinbase introduces a new pathway to realizing the American Dream for the 52 million Americans who own digital assets,” said Better CEO Vishal Garg. “Token-backed mortgages are a major first step to unlocking homeownership for the younger generations that have struggled with barriers to saving for a traditional downpayment,” said Coinbase head of consumer and business products Max Branzburg. Buyers who qualify for a mortgage with Better can secure loans against their cryptocurrency holdings for a down payment. These loans will be separate from the Fannie Mae-backed mortgage, though both will be combined in a single payment to Better. Once cryptocurrency assets are pledged, they cannot be traded, the companies said. Fluctuations in the value of these coins will not change loan payments. While some companies currently

Mortgages
US mortgage rates rise to highest rate in 6 months
Total mortgage applications plummeted last week-over-week as mortgage rates rose to their highest level since October last year. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the contract rate in a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 13 basis points to 6.43% in the week ending 20 March. This is the highest it's been in nearly six months. Following this, the MBA’s weekly applications index dropped 10.5% to 310.7, which is the lowest level since January. Applications to refinance existing loans tumbled 14.6%, and applications for loans to purchase a new property fell 5.4%. This comes as the yield on the 10-year United States government security, the most influential to mortgage rates, shot up since the beginning of the war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, causing the blockage of around 20% of the world’s oil. The 10-year Treasury yield has climbed from 3.96% on the Friday before the attacks began on 28 February to 4.39% on Tuesday, matching its highest end-of-day level since July. “The threat of higher for longer oil prices continued to keep Treasury yields elevated, and mortgage rates finished last week higher,” MBA vice president and deputy chief, Joel Kan, said. “The 30-year f
Mortgages
US mortgage applications plunge in mid-March
Mortgage applications in the United States have dropped significantly in mid-March, with a sudden spike in interest rates chilling refinance activity, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Mortgage applications fell 10.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis on the week ending 13 March. This was likely triggered by increasing borrowing costs across the board, with 30-year fixed mortgages reaching their highest rate since December 2025. The average mortgage rate jumped to 6.3% from 6.19% the previous week, according to MBA data. MBA vice president and deputy chief economist Joel Kan attributed the rate jump to broader macroeconomic and geopolitical factors. “Mortgage rates continued to move higher, driven by increasing Treasury yields as the conflict in the Middle East kept oil prices elevated, along with the risk of a broader inflationary shock,” Kan said. Kan also said government refinances dropped, and that purchase applications remained steady. “Government refinances also declined, but by 5%, as FHA rates have not increased quite as rapidly,” Kan said. The MBA’s refinance index decreased 19% from the previous week while remaining 69% higher than the same week one year earlier. The r
Mortgages
US mortgage rates hit their lowest point in four years
United States mortgage rates have hit their lowest level in four years, improving prolonged gains in refinancing but leaving homebuyers unimpressed. Total mortgage applications have remained flat, rising only 0.4% compared to the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. The average contract interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with conforming loan balances of $832,750 or less fell to its lowest level since September 2022. It has fallen from 6.17% to 6.09%, with points falling to 0.53 from 0.56, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. Applications for refinancing a home loan increased 4% week-over-week and 150% year-over-year, when rates were 79 basis points higher. While the comparisons to a year ago are quite large, it is important to note that refinancing was low at this time last year. Applications for a mortgage to purchase fell 5% week-over-week but rose 12% from the same time last year. Despite lower mortgage rates improving affordability, home prices are still slightly higher than they were at this time last year, and economic uncertainty is weighing heavily on consumers. Redfin cited this uncertainty in a report sh
Mortgages
Fed's Bowman signals bank mortgage rule shift
The Federal Reserve is preparing to unveil two mortgage-related regulatory proposals aimed at strengthening and stabilising banks’ role in the United States housing finance system, according to Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman. Speaking on Monday at the American Bankers Association’s Conference for Community Bankers, Bowman said the central bank was assessing how prudential regulations may have contributed to a long-running shift of mortgage activity away from traditional banks and towards nonbank lenders. Her remarks signal a potential recalibration of post-financial crisis capital rules that have reshaped the structure of the mortgage market over the past 15 years. Bowman noted what she described as “a significant migration of mortgage origination and servicing out of the banking sector” to nonbanks since the global financial crisis. In 2008, banks originated roughly 60% of U.S. mortgages and serviced nearly all outstanding balances, she said. By 2023, however, banks’ share of mortgage originations had fallen to 35%, while their share of servicing dropped to 45%. “Taking a step back to understand the magnitude of this change, as regulators, we have a responsibility to determine whether prudential regulat