Today's Mortgage Rates & Trends - April 26, 2023: Rates Dip

For a fourth consecutive day, rates on 30-year and 15-year home loans dropped, along with all other mortgage averages except those for jumbo loans, which held steady. The 30-year average continues to dip further below the 7% reading it notched one week ago.

Today's National Mortgage Rate Averages

With another 7 basis point drop Tuesday, the 30-year mortgage average has shaved off 21 points in four days. After hitting 7.03% one week ago, the flagship average is now down to 6.82%. Thirty-year rates continue to move around in a range between February's five-month low of 6.11% and October's 20-year high of 7.58%.

Rates on 15-year mortgages also declined Tuesday by 7 basis points on average, extending a similar four-day rate drop. The 15-year average continues wavering between its own February valley, a five-month low of 5.23%, and its October high, a 15-year peak of 7.03%.

Averages across all jumbo loan types marched in place for a fourth day. Holding at 6.02%, Tuesday's jumbo 30-year average is only a quarter point below its October's 12-year-high of 6.27%.

Tuesday's refinancing rates moved roughly in line with new purchase rates. The 30-year refi average sank a more dramatic 13 basis points, while the 15-year refi average dipped a milder 6 points. The jumbo 30-year refi average once again was flat. The cost to refinance for 30 years is currently 29 basis points more expensive than 30-year new purchase rates.

After a historical rate plunge in August 2021, mortgage rates skyrocketed in the first half of 2022. Indeed, the 30-year average's mid-June peak of 6.38% was almost 3.5 percentage points above its summer 2021 trough of 2.89%. But the surge last September and October dramatically outdid the summer high, with the 30-year average ultimately reaching 1.2 percentage points higher than the June peak.

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What Causes Mortgage Rates to Rise or Fall?

Mortgage rates are determined by a complex interaction of macroeconomic and industry factors, such as the level and direction of the bond market, including 10-year Treasury yields; the Federal Reserve's current monetary policy, especially as it relates to funding government-backed mortgages; and competition between mortgage lenders and across loan types. Because fluctuations can be caused by any number of these at once, it's generally difficult to attribute the change to any one factor.

Macroeconomic factors had kept the mortgage market relatively low for much of 2021. In particular, the Federal Reserve had been buying billions of dollars of bonds in response to the pandemic's economic pressures. This bond-buying policy (and not the more publicized federal funds rate) is a major influencer on mortgage rates.

But starting in November 2021, the Fed began tapering its bond purchases downward, making sizable reductions each month until reaching net-zero in March 2022.

The Fed's rate and policy committee, called the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), meets every six to eight weeks. Their next scheduled meeting will conclude on May 3, 2023.

Methodology

The national averages cited above were calculated based on the lowest rate offered by more than 200 of the country's top lenders, assuming a loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 80% and an applicant with a FICO credit score in the 700–760 range. The resulting rates are representative of what customers should expect to see when receiving actual quotes from lenders based on their qualifications, which may vary from advertised teaser rates.

For our map of the best state rates, the lowest rate currently offered by a surveyed lender in that state is listed, assuming the same parameters of an 80% LTV and a credit score between 700–760.