United States mortgage rates have officially jumped to their highest levels since March.
According to Mortgage News Daily, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 6.57% on Wednesday.
This is 15 basis points higher than last Friday and the highest level since 27 March.
Mortgage News Daily chief operating officer, Matthew Graham, explained that while the consumer price index (CPI) had little obvious negative impact on rates, the producer price index (PPI) did.
“Bonds are also assuming a corrective drop after the war is over,” Graham said.
This comes as the spring market is beginning to rebound after stalling in March.
The National Association of Realtors said data from Sentrilock, which provides the lockboxes real estate agents use for for-sale properties, recorded home showings in April were up 8% year over year.
The National Association of Realtors also found that existing home sales rose 0.2% month-over-month in April.
Some of this demand has been driven by a cooling in home prices, which is still slightly higher than it was a year ago nationally, as well as supply.
“Inventory has not rebounded yet; we’re still 11-12% below where we should be,” said Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research at ICE, a mortgage technology company.
Walden also pointed out the recent increase in interest rates, which are roughly 40 basis points higher than in February.
Mortgage rates, however, were closer to 7% at this time last year.
“If you look at what that means for buying power out there in the market, it’s down about 4% from where it was in February,” he said.
“We’re more affordable than last year, but not as affordable as we were early this year.”
