Freddie Mac publishes a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage average for the week. In the current week, the average moved up from 6.48% to 6.52%. That is the highest rate for the year and the highest rate going back to August 25 when the yield was at 6.56%
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Looking at the chart, there is a floor near 5.98% to 6.08% that floor extends back to the end of August 2022. In early February, the yield moved to 5.98%.
The 100 and 200 week moving averages, come in at 6.50% and 6.62%. With the average yield at 6.52% this week, it sits between those longer-term averages suggesting a neutral bias.
For 2026, the housing market looks more like a slow-growth, high-rate environment than a boom or bust:
Existing-home sales: roughly 4.0–4.2 million annual pace.
New-home sales: roughly 600,000–650,000 annual pace.
Median existing-home price: about $420,000–$430,000.
Median new-home price: about $420,000.
Price appreciation: generally running around 1%–3% nationally.
The biggest story remains affordability. Prices have largely stopped surging, but mortgage rates have stayed high enough to keep many buyers on the sidelines.
This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.