US mortgage rates climb for a seventh straight week to 7.4%
The 30-year rate breaks above the high set just over a week ago, even as policymakers signal patience on further increases.
Published
Chart: US 30-year fixed mortgage rate
The average rate on a 30-year US mortgage rose for a seventh consecutive week, reaching 7.4%. That is a fresh high, topping the 7.3% level reached on September 30.
The increase comes even as Treasury officials have spent that stretch signaling patience on further rate hikes, and traders have pared the odds of an October increase toward 50-50.
Mortgage rates track the long end of the bond market more closely than they track the near-term timing of Fed decisions, so borrowing costs for homebuyers can keep rising even as hike rhetoric softens. Housing is the area Fed officials have flagged as absorbing tightening most directly, and this week's reading shows that pressure building rather than easing. The next inflation or jobs data are likely to decide whether long-dated yields, and mortgage rates with them, resume climbing or start to retreat.