U.S. 30-year mortgage interest rates fell to 6.77% due to expectations of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve
Data released by Freddie Mac, a U.S. government-sponsored mortgage lender, on the 16th showed that the average interest rate on 30-year fixed mortgages in the United States dropped to 6.77%, the lowest level since mid-March this year, reflecting the continued rise in market expectations that the Federal Reserve is about to start cutting interest rates. Data show that in the week ended July 16, the U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell 12 basis points from 6.89% in the previous week, but was still higher than the 6.96% in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the average 15-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.05% from 6.17% the previous week. Market analysts pointed out that the recent continued slowdown in U.S. inflation data and the cooling of the labor market have further consolidated financial market expectations for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve at this fall’s interest rate meeting. Affected by this, the U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yield, which is the benchmark for pricing mortgage interest rates, has continued to fall recently, directly lowering the level of terminal mortgage interest rates. Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater said that the fall in mortgage rates has helped slightly ease the financing cost pressure on home buyers, but due to the long-term tight housing inventory and high housing prices across the United States, the overall activity of the housing buying and selling market is still limited. Analysts believe that a moderate decline in mortgage interest rates in the short term will be difficult to fundamentally reverse the contradiction between supply and demand in the U.S. real estate market.