Mortgage rates

The Freddie Mac mortgage rate tracker on Thursday morning showed the conforming 30-year fixed rate mortgage creep closer to the 7% level last seen in May.

Lenders will need to lean on alternative products as limited mortgage rate relief keeps some consumers on the sidelines, but others will tire of waiting and act.

Home sellers for properties listed at $650,000 or less are more likely to overprice their house and as a result, these are the ones which are languishing on the market.

Pending home sales during November were led by a 5.2% monthly increase in the South, with smaller advances in the West and Midwest, the National Association of Realtors said.

Mortgage rates have run higher since the most recent Federal Reserve meeting as consumer spending points to economic strength.

Mortgage rates should decline very gradually next year as the Federal Reserve will keep to its implied path of short-term rate reductions, Freddie Mac said.

Only some of the increase compared with October can be attributed to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as annual rates have increased six months in a row, ICE Mortgage Technology said.

Sales of new single-family homes increased 5.9% last month to a 664,000 annualized rate, in line with the median estimate of economists who expected 669,000.

United Wholesale Mortgage's legal battles and the passing of David Stevens top the list of important mortgage news in 2024.

The so-called core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes food and energy items, increased 0.1% from October and 2.8% from a year earlier, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data out Friday.