http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/topic/mortgage-rates Mortgage Rates Predictions and Analysis https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05202026 Wed, 20 May 2026 18:58:00 GMT 6a0e0775c631c9085d7ebbac Matthew Graham Wednesday brought some much-needed relief for the mortgage market after rates surged to new 9 month highs of 6.75% yesterday. Whereas that rate spike was decoupled from the prevailing narrative of war-related headlines, today's recovery was quite the opposite. Newswires came out shortly after 10am ET that suggested the U.S. and Iran are nearing a final draft of a peace agreement. While such news has been prone to correction and revision, the market was nonetheless willing to respond quickly and rather forcefully. Oil prices dropped sharply with Treasury yields in tow. In the bond market, "yield" is another word for "rate." And because mortgage pricing is directly dictated by mortgage-specific bonds, when yields are falling, mortgage rates will almost always be falling as well. The average lender fully erased yesterday's rate spike, ultimately making it back below the levels seen on Monday afternoon. Granted, Monday's levels were still the highest in many months at the time, but we have to start somewhere. At the very least, today's market movement reiterates the fact that rates will likely make an even better recovery when the war is officially over. [thirtyyearmortgagerates] Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05192026 Tue, 19 May 2026 19:28:00 GMT 6a0cbc43045fe12ce3cc32d7 Matthew Graham It was another rough day for the bond market and, thus, for interest rates. Investors aggressively sold bonds in the first 2 hours of trading, taking 10yr Treasury yields to the highest level in more than a year. Mortgage-specific bonds have been doing better versus Treasuries in recent months thanks to increased purchase demand from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All else equal, higher demand for mortgage bonds = lower rates, relatively. In the current case, it means mortgage rates haven't moved up as much as Treasury yields over the past 6 months. That said, rates have still definitely moved higher. Today's top tier 30yr fixed rate is up to 6.75% for the average lender--the highest since July 2025, and a whopping 0.75% higher since before the Iran war began. This makes it the fastest rate spike seen since late 2024. [thirtyyearmortgagerates] Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05182026 Mon, 18 May 2026 19:34:00 GMT 6a0b6bb6b92937618432b2b4 Matthew Graham Mortgage rates hit their highest levels in more than 9 months at the end of last week. Now today, they've edged slightly higher yet again with the average top tier 30yr fixed rate at 6.68% versus 6.65% on Friday. This wasn't necessarily destined to be the case today. In fact the day began with the average lender unchanged. But the underlying market remains highly attuned to breaking news on the Iran war. Earlier in the day, that news was helpful for rates as it spoke to the possibility of compromise on a peace deal. Subsequent headlines refuted the initial news, thus pushing the financial market back in the other direction (i.e. toward higher rates). The result was that the average lender recalled their initial rate offerings and re-released higher rates. Things were on track to be even worse this afternoon when Trump said he was cancelling a planned attack and that serious negotiations were taking place. This helped bonds recover some of the earlier losses, but not enough for lenders to make any friendly rate adjustments today.  Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05152026 Fri, 15 May 2026 16:40:00 GMT 6a07510e6d2ba55fbb87640b Matthew Graham Mortgage rates are driven by bonds and the bond market hoped to see more evidence of shift toward peace during the 2-day Trump/Xi meeting in China. As soon as Trump got back on the plane to head home, bonds began tanking (i.e. jumping to higher yields). When bond yields spike, mortgage rates follow, and today is no exception. The average top-tier 30yr fixed rate is up to 6.62% this morning, right in line with levels seen on March 26th and 27th and the highest since August 1st. If there's a silver lining, it's that mortgage rates aren't higher. Much of the credit goes to the ramp in purchases of mortgage-backed debt by Fannie and Freddie. The more mortgage debt they buy, the better it is for mortgage rates relative to benchmarks like U.S. Treasuries. For instance, Treasuries are now well above the levels seen in late March and in line with levels from the first half of 2025 when mortgage rates were 7% instead of 6.62%. Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05142026 Thu, 14 May 2026 19:20:00 GMT 6a062195337518abfe839bae Matthew Graham May continues to be a more volatile month than the bulk of April when it comes to day over day mortgage rate movement. While the average day has seen that volatility play out in favor of higher rates, today was thankfully the opposite.  Yesterday's latest levels left the average lender at 6 week highs with a top tier 30yr fixed rate of 6.57. The underlying bond market was already beginning to recover yesterday afternoon. Combined with additional, modest bond market improvement overnight, today's 30yr fixed rate fell to 6.52% on average. The Iran war remains the primary source of volatility for markets. Some analysts expect more traction on a peace deal to come out of Trump's meeting with Xi (which will continue into tomorrow). This is far from a given, but if it happens, it would almost certainly put additional downward pressure on rates. Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05132026 Wed, 13 May 2026 18:58:00 GMT 6a04cfbba77097e747a09e54 Matthew Graham Mortgage rates rose somewhat sharply yesterday to match the highest level since March 27th. They're just a hair higher today, thus officially at 6-week highs.  Whereas yesterday's Consumer Price Index (CPI) didn't have an obviously negative impact on rates, today's Producer Price Index (PPI) did. Both are big inflation reports. CPI is typically much more likely to cause a reaction in rates, but PPI showed a much bigger surge in inflation this morning. Even then, the underlying bond market wasn't too much worse by the end of the day and the mortgage-specific bond market actually made a full recovery. But that recovery was too gradual and shallow for the average lender to adjust their rates today. That left our rate index 0.01% higher day over day at 6.57% for a top tier 30yr fixed. [thirtyyearmortgagerates] Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05122026 Tue, 12 May 2026 19:28:00 GMT 6a0381c8be432f2ae76371e8 Matthew Graham When the Iran war was in its initial escalation phase, the initial surge in markets took the top-tier 30yr fixed rate to 6.64% for the average lender by March 27th. Rates moved more than 0.30% lower by mid April as peace prospect improved.  The third phase of rate movement began in late April and has generally involved a jump back up toward 6.5% with the first 2 days of the present week accounting for a move from 6.42% to 6.56%. That matches the highest level seen since March 27th. Bonds yields (which underlie rates) have followed longer-term oil prices to their highest recent levels as Trump said the U.S. is not in a hurry to end the war.  [thirtyyearmortgagerates] Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05112026 Mon, 11 May 2026 19:30:00 GMT 6a0230057532325de1960351 Matthew Graham Last week was decidedly stronger for mortgage rates as they either held steady or moved lower on 5 out of 5 days. All told, it was a 0.14% drop from the previous week in terms of the average top-tier 30yr fixed rate.  The new week is starting out in opposite fashion with rates moving up 0.07% today alone. This follows news over the weekend that Trump rejected Iran's counterproposal to end the war. In general, the longer the war continues, the higher oil prices will remain.  Oil price don't dictate rates, but there's currently a lot of correlation due to inflation implications. Oil naturally impacts the cost to ship goods, so a rapid spike in oil prices increases inflation. Rates are based on bonds, and bonds hate inflation. In fact, inflation is technically a component of bond yields (aka "rates"). Despite the rocky start to the week, we're not necessarily destined to move in one direction or the other. Everything depends on progress toward peace, or lack thereof. To a lesser extent, this week's incoming economic data can also have an impact. Coincidentally, much of that data focuses on inflation for the month of April. Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05082026 Fri, 08 May 2026 17:52:00 GMT 69fe244fa93b4e269c2f5e51 Matthew Graham It ended up being a decent round trip for rates this week. Monday kicked things off with a jump to the highest level in more than a month, and the third highest since August 2025. But that ended up being the only day where rates went higher.  Wednesday brough the biggest chunk of the recovery with MND's daily rate index dropping 0.10%.  Tuesday and Friday (today) each added a 0.02% drop, taking the index to 6.42% after ending last week at 6.44%. War-related headlines were less of a factor today and volatility was unsurprisingly lighter as a result. This is an adjustment for seasoned rate watchers who are used to monthly jobs report being a distinct source of volatility. It's especially notable that the job count came in significantly higher with no ill effect on bonds/rates. Over the past 6 months, markets have shifted their jobs report focus from the payroll count to the unemployment rate, reversing decades of precedent. Today's outcome is more logical in that context as the unemployment rate was right in line with expectations at 4.3%. Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-05072026 Thu, 07 May 2026 18:46:00 GMT 69fce0a15e1be06161f79559 Matthew Graham The day began on a fairly hopeful note for the mortgage market. During overnight trading hours, the bond market improved following a report regarding a peace framework sent to Iran by The U.S.  When bonds improve, rates fall, all else equal. The gains were modest, but they allowed the average lender to set their first rates of the day at slightly lower levels compared to yesterday. Lenders prefer a "one and done" strategy when it comes to setting mortgage rates for the day, but they will make mid-day changes if the underlying market moves enough. The underlying market began moving more than enough just before the noon hour. Most lenders were forced to recall their initial rate offerings and make upward adjustments. The net effect at the time of printing is that the average lender is back in line with yesterday's levels.  Mortgage News Daily 0 http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/rss/rates