The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage ended a three-week streak of increases, reflecting a pullback in long-term U.S. Treasury bond yields.
The average long-term mortgage rate fell to 6.23% from 6.26% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Wednesday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.81%.
Just four weeks ago, the average rate was at 6.17%, its lowest level in more than a year.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week. The rate averaged 5.51%, down from 5.54% last week. A year ago, it was 6.10%, Freddie Mac said.
Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.
The 10-year yield was at 4.01% at midday Wednesday. That’s down from about 4.13% a week ago.
When mortgage rates ease, the purchasing power of boost homebuyers gets a boost.
Easing mortgage rates this fall helped lift sales of previously occupied U.S. homes in October on an annual basis for the fourth straight month.
Still, affordability remains a challenge for many aspiring homeowners after years of skyrocketing prices. Uncertainty over the economy and job market are also keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.
That’s helped keep sales of previously occupied U.S. homes stuck at around a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023. Historically, sales have typically hovered around 5.2 million a year.
Mortgage rates began declining this summer ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision in September to cut its main interest rate for the first time in a year amid signs the labor market was slowing. The Fed lowered its key interest rate again last month, although Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that further rate cuts weren’t guaranteed.
Still, comments from Fed officials have fueled speculation that the central bank will again cut interest rates at its meeting in December. Wall Street traders are betting on a nearly 83% probability that the Fed will cut next month, according to data from CME Group.
“It is looking increasingly likely that the Fed will cut interest rates when it meets on Dec. 10,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “However, we should not expect that to translate into a big drop in mortgage rates.”
The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, and even when it cuts its short-term rates that doesn’t necessarily mean rates on home loans will necessarily decline.
Last fall after the Fed cut its rate for the first time in more than four years, mortgage rates marched higher, eventually reaching just above 7% in January this year. At that time, the 10-year Treasury yield was climbing toward 5%.
Recent forecasts by economists at the National Association of Realtors and First American call for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to drop to around 6% next year.
FILE - A for sale sign stands outside a single-family residence on the market May 22, 2024, in southeast Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran kept up its attacks on Israel and Persian Gulf neighbors on Wednesday as airstrikes pounded Tehran and U.S. President Donald Trump again made contradictory statements about whether he was ready to wind down the war or escalate it.
Trump struck a belligerent tone Wednesday in a Truth Social post, demanding that Iran stop blocking the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway vital to global oil supplies — or the U.S. would bomb the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Ages.” A day earlier, Trump said the U.S. “will not have anything to do with” ensuring the security of ships passing through Hormuz; that was an apparent backtrack from a previous threat to attack Iran's power grid if it didn't open the strait by April 6.
Trump, who is scheduled to give a televised address Wednesday evening, said Tuesday he could walk away from the war in two to three weeks once he felt confident Iran would not be able to build a nuclear weapon — even if Tehran does not agree to a ceasefire. The hint of an end in sight has buoyed Wall Street the past two days.
His latest Truth Social post struck a harder line as more American troops move into the region for a possible ground offensive after weeks of airstrikes targeting Iran.
Trump also claimed Wednesday that “Iran's New Regime President” wanted a ceasefire. It wasn't clear to whom the U.S. president was referring since Iran still has the same president. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, called Trump's claim “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.
Speaking earlier to Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled Tehran’s willingness to keep fighting. “You cannot speak to the people of Iran in the language of threats and deadlines,” he said. “We do not set any deadline for defending ourselves.”
Since the war began on Feb. 28, Trump has offered shifting objectives and repeatedly has said it could be over soon while also threatening to widen the conflict. Thousands of additional U.S. troops are currently heading to the Middle East, and speculation abounds about the purpose of their deployment.
Just days ago, Trump threatened to attack Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub. And there has also been speculation about whether the U.S. could decide to send in military forces to secure Iran’s uranium stockpile — a complex and risky operation, fraught with radiation and chemical dangers, according to experts and former government officials.
Adding to the confusion is what role Israel — which has been bombing Iran alongside the U.S. — might play in any of these scenarios.
Trump has been under growing pressure to end the war as oil prices have skyrocketed, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other goods. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, is up more than 40% since the start of the war, though it declined slightly on Wednesday and traded at around $101 a barrel.
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point plan aimed at bringing about a ceasefire, including a demand for the strait to be reopened and for its nuclear program to be rolled back.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. And in a report last week by Iranian state TV's English-language broadcaster, an anonymous official was quoted as saying Iran had its own demands to end the fighting, including retaining sovereignty over the strait.
In the interview with Al Jazeera, Araghchi acknowledged receiving direct messages from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. He insisted, however, that there were no direct negotiations and said Iran has no faith that talks with the U.S. could yield any results, saying “the trust level is at zero.”
He warned against any U.S. attempt to launch a ground offensive, saying “we are waiting for them.”
In a deal ostensibly to give diplomacy a chance, U.S. officials have given “clear assurances” that Araghchi and Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf won't be targeted, according to three officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on social media Wednesday a letter addressing U.S. citizens, saying that before the war, his country had pursued negotiations, but that the U.S. chose to withdraw from that path. “Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war? Was there any objective threat from Iran to justify such behavior?” Pezeshkian asked in the letter posted in English on his X account.
A cruise missile slammed into an oil tanker off Qatar’s coast Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said. The crew was evacuated and no casualties were reported. A Kuwaiti oil tanker came under attack off Dubai the day before, one of more than 20 ships attacked by Iran during the war.
In the United Arab Emirates, a person was killed when he was hit by debris from an intercepted drone in Fujairah, one of the country’s seven emirates.
In Kuwait, the state-run KUNA news agency said a drone hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a large fire.
Jordan’s military said it intercepted a ballistic missile and two drones fired from Iran in the last 24 hours. No casualties were reported. Two drones were also intercepted in Saudi Arabia.
In Israel, sirens sounded to warn of incoming missiles and AP reporters heard loud booms in Tel Aviv as the windows of buildings shook from the reverberations. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
An airstrike on Tehran appeared to have hit the former U.S. Embassy compound, which has been controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard since American diplomats were held hostage there in 1979. Witnesses said buildings outside the massive compound had their windows blown out.
In Lebanon, at least five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a Beirut neighborhood.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon after the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group began launching missiles into northern Israel days after the outbreak of the war. Many Lebanese fear another prolonged military occupation.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million displaced, according to authorities. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
A young girl is comforted by her father and Israeli soldiers as they take cover in a bomb shelter during air raid sirens warning of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People inspect the site of an Israeli strike amid debris and damaged vehicles in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man feeds stray cats in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The Indian flagged LPG carrier Jag Vasant transporting liquefied petroleum gas, is seen at the Mumbai Port in Mumbai, India, after it arrived clearing the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Firefighters and rescue workers work at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Israel's rescue teams and residents take shelter as sirens sounds next to a site struck by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A police vehicle is seen through a shattered windshield at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Two men ride scooters past charred debris at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
