Home Loan Costs Go Up for the Sixth Week During Election Uncertainty


Home loan costs have been going up for the past six weeks. This change tracks the increase in the cost of U.S. government bonds which have been affected by the presidential election.

The most common type of home loan, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, increased a little, reaching an interest rate of 6.79%. Just a week before, it was slightly lower at 6.72%. 

Another popular home loan, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, didn't change much—moving to 6% from 5.99%.

Mortgage rates usually go hand-in-hand with the interest rates on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds. During the election, bond rates went up quickly because traders thought former President Donald Trump might win and his policies might make prices go up across the economy.

Trump's win saw an immediate jump in bond rates, but then they fell back a bit the next day.

The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, is likely to cut their interest rates, which doesn't generally have an immediate impact on mortgage rates.

Experts in the housing market think that these higher mortgage rates could stay around for a bit. One expert, Lisa Sturtevant from Bright MLS, thinks that rates might eventually go down, but there could be ups and downs and they could stay over 6% throughout the next year.

Read more: What to Know About the 2024 and 2025 Housing Market for Buyers and Sellers

Additionally, the increase in home loan costs has made people less excited to buy houses or refinance their current loans. The number of people applying to buy a house fell by 5%, and the number of people wanting to refinance their loans dropped by 19%.

Sam Khater, an economist at Freddie Mac, pointed out that the number of people looking to buy a house has decreased by 10% over the past month since rates started to climb at the beginning of October, showing that people are really watching these rates closely.

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Category: Housing


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