Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage Rates Fall Back Below 6.5%
Mortgage rates moved lower for the second straight day as markets responded to potential de-escalation in the Iran war.  Rates are based on bonds and bonds improved overnight as The President said the war could end even if the Strait of Hormuz was not yet reopened. Additional improvement followed during domestic hours based on headlines that suggested Iranian officials were "ready to end the war." The market reaction might have been bigger had those claims not been contingent on Iran wanting "certain guarantees."  They also came from Iran's President and not the Supreme Leader. Still, stocks, bonds, and oil prices all responded. The bond market response involved additional improvement. As bonds improve, rates move lower.  The net effect for mortgage rates was a move back below 6.50% for top-tier 30yr fixed rates at the average lender. This marks the best 2 days of improvement since the war began, but the caveat is that the larger movements are often seen after rates hit longer-term highs.
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Mortgage Rates Drop Meaningfully Over The Weekend
The bad news is that the average top-tier 30yr fixed rate remains over 6.5% after being under 6% just a month ago. The good news is that rates recovered nicely over the weekend.  By Friday afternoon, the average rate was 6.64%--the highest since August 2025--adding to a trend of rapid upward movement over the course of March. While there's no way to know if a bigger picture corner has been turned, it's a victory in the short term. Notably, the underlying bond market broke from its typical correlation with oil prices today. The latter has experienced severe volatility due to the Iran war, and bonds have been affected due to inflation implications. It's too soon to determine if that's happening for temporary reasons relating to the calendar more than underlying events and economic fundamentals.
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Mortgage Rates Inch Up to Another Long-Term High
There were mixed blessings in the mortgage rate world today. The bad news is that today's rates are just a bit higher than yesterday's, resulting in another 8 month high. The good news is that things were looking quite a bit worse earlier in the morning. Mortgage lenders prefer to set rates once per day even though those rates are dictated by movement in the underlying bond market. If bonds move enough, lenders will change rates mid-day. Today was one of those days and, fortunately, the change was in a friendly direction.  Before the improvement, the average lender's top tier 30yr fixed rate was roughly 6.7%, but afterward, only 6.64%.
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Rates Leap to Another Multi-Month High
After a somewhat hopeful day on Wednesday, mortgage rates are back to their same old tricks on Thursday. The tricks in question involve following the broader market reaction to the Iran war which has caused significant and almost exclusive upward movement in interest rates for the entire month of March. Average 30yr fixed rates have been at or near the highest levels in 7-8 months over the past 4 days. Today easily took them to slightly higher levels as global financial markets lost ground. The move lines up symmetrically with lower stock prices and higher oil prices. Until there's meaningful and lasting de-escalation of the Iran war, the safest bet is for more volatility for interest rates. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]
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Rates Ease Despite Conflicting Iran War Headlines
The past 24 hours have seen multiple news stories with seemingly contradictory updates regarding the state of the Iran war. There's a ceasefire. There's no ceasefire. There's negotiation. There's no negotiation, etc. As far as the rate market is concerned, the most important development has been the general appearance of a shift toward diplomacy and resolution on the U.S. side. This has been enough for oil prices to preserve a majority of the drop seen at the start of the week.  Bond yields (which correlate with mortgage rates) have been doing even better than oil prices today. The net effect is the lowest average mortgage rates since last Thursday. Notably, these rates are still sharply higher than February's and, apart from the past few days, the highest since early September, 2025. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]
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