In hopeful sign, US mortgage rates at lowest level since September

Robert Besser
24 Jan 2023, 06:28 GMT+10

Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association released this week showed that the average interest rate on leading US home loans dropped to its lowest level since September
For the week ending on 31st January, the average contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell by 6.23 percent to 19 basis points
The yield on the 10-year note acts as a benchmark for mortgage rates

WASHINGTON D.C.: Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association released this week showed that the average interest rate on leading US home loans dropped to its lowest level since September, indicating that inflation has past its peak as Treasury yields decrease.

For the week ending on 31st January, the average contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell by 6.23 percent to 19 basis points, as financial markets have been encouraged by recent data showing that inflation is slowing, which will enable the Federal Reserve to curb its interest rate hikes.

The yield on the 10-year note acts as a benchmark for mortgage rates.

As the Federal Reserve Bank raised its benchmark policy rate in 2022 at the most rapid rate in 40 years, mortgage rates surged to more than 7 percent in October.

Lower mortgage rates have attracted more buyers, with the Mortgage Bankers Association's Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, rising 27.9 percent from last week, the highest increase since March 2020.

After lifting its policy rate by 50 basis points in December, the US central bank is expected to slow its pace of rate hikes to a quarter percentage point increase when it next meets on 31st January and 1st February.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Professional Autos.

More Information

27 ℃

Mostly Cloudy in Seletar

Business

Section

Officials hopeful as UK new car sales rise 14 percent in January

LONDON, England: The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has reported that new car registrations in the UK rose for ...

Big jump in sales for Foxconn as China ends Covid restrictions

TAIPEI, Taiwan: After the end of COVID-19 disruptions in China, Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and major ...

U.S. stocks get boost from Fed chair, Nasdaq surges 226 points

NEW YORK, New York - Stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday following mixed comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.Powell ...

Media reports US to sue Amazon claiming antitrust violations

NEW YORK CITY, New York: The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the US Federal Trade Commission is preparing ...

Blaming cost of manufacturing, Nestle to raise prices for second year

VEVEY, Switzerland: In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this week, Nestle's Chief Executive Mark Schneider said the world's largest ...

Fed fails to cool economy as US sees 517,000 jobs created in January

WASHINGTON D.C.: Despite the efforts of the Federal Reserve Bank to cool the job market to help curb record-high inflation, ...

Engineering

Section