Mortgage Interest Rates Forecast

Holden Lewis
By Holden Lewis 
Updated

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Mortgage rates today: Friday, March 24, 2023

On Friday, March 24, 2023, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped 10 basis points to 6.363% APR. The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 5 basis points to 5.736% APR, and the average rate on a 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage was down 4 basis points to 6.856% APR, according to rates provided to NerdWallet by Zillow. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 17 basis points lower than one week ago and 174 basis points higher than one year ago. A basis point is one one-hundredth of one percent. Rates are expressed as an annual percentage rate, or APR.

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Mortgage rates this week

Mortgage rates slid lower in the week ending March 23, following a 25-basis-point rate increase by the Federal Reserve.

  • The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.6% APR, down 14 basis points from the previous week's average.

  • The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.88% APR, down 7 basis points from the previous week's average.

  • The five-year adjustable-rate mortgage 6.86% APR, down nine basis points from the previous week's average.

Fixed mortgage rates tend to follow movements in yields for 10-year Treasury notes, which had a tumultuous up-and-down week. Mortgage rates did the same, ending with a stomach-fluttering drop.

The bumpy ride accompanied speculation about the March 21-22 meeting of the Federal Reserve's monetary policymakers. Would they raise short-term interest rates for the ninth time in a row, or take a break to let the financial system absorb the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, followed by Signature Bank, this month?

It turned out that the Fed kept its focus on controlling inflation. It raised the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point. The mortgage markets read what they wanted to read in the Fed's policy statement: They thought the central bank was hinting that it will raise short-term rates once more this year, and mortgage rates fell.

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