The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.52% in the week through Wednesday, up from 6.48% a week earlier, after fresh jobs and inflation data pushed traders to price in a tougher Federal Reserve path.
The move came after the U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May and new inflation data showed prices climbed 4.2% from a year earlier, leaving about two-thirds of traders expecting the Fed will raise benchmark interest rates at least once before year-end. Kara Ng said the data together reinforced a “higher-for-longer” view, adding that markets have largely given up hopes for rate cuts this year, Treasury yields rose and mortgage rates resumed their climb.
That matters because mortgage rates have spent the last four weeks hovering around 6.5%, a level that keeps affordability strained for buyers and leaves refinancing more expensive. Even so, buying and selling activity picked up in May, suggesting some households are still moving despite borrowing costs that remain well above the lows seen earlier in the recovery.
The Fed does not set mortgage rates directly, but expectations for its next moves feed quickly into Treasury yields and then into home-loan pricing. For borrowers, the immediate question is not whether rates are high; it is whether the latest economic data have already pushed them into a new range that could hold through the summer.
