Most mortgage rate averages were generally flat Monday, including a minimal decline for 30-year new purchase rates. That keeps the 30-year av🥂erage near its lowest level since May, currently averaging 7.09%. Only the 20-year and VA 30-year fixed-rate averages saw dramatic changes Monday.

Since rates vary widely across lenders, it's always smart to shop around for your best mortgage option and compare rates regularly, no m🐷atter the type of home loan you're seeking.

Today's Mortgage Rate Averages: New Purchase

After plummeting almost four-tenths of a percentage point in the middle of last week, the 30-year mortgage average rose a minor 8 basis points Friday but shaved off a point Monday. That leaves the average at 7.09%, still within its lowest range since the spring. The average's dip last week to 7.02% was the lowest 30-year average on record since May 17—while just two months ago, 30-year mortgage rates had climbed to a 23-year peak of 8.45%.

Rates on 15-year new purchase loans als🍬o fell dramatically last week, sinking to their lowest level since May 15. And they r༺emain in that range, with Monday seeing the 15-year average tack on just a three basis points to register 6.28%. In contrast, October saw 15-year loan rates surge to a 7.59% peak, the highest average since 2000.

Jumbo 30-year rates held steady Monday after moving lower for two days. The jumbo 30-year average is down to 6.44%. its cheapest reading since July. Though daily historical jumbo rates are not available before 2009, it's estimated that the 7.52% peak in October was the most expensive average for jumbo 30-year loans in more than 20 years.

𝔍The biggest new purchase rate movers Monday were the 20-year fixed-rate average, which sank 20 basis points (after surging 25 basis points Friday), while the VA 30-year average shed 11 basis points.

Today's Mortgage Rate Averages: Refinancing

Refinancing rates showed a bit stronger movement Monday than their ꦿnew purchase siblings. The 30-year refi average gave up 13 basis points, narrowing the spread between 30-year new purchase and refi rates to 40 basis points. Refi rates for 15-year loans moved 5 basis points higher, while the jumbo 30-ye﷽ar refi average marked time.

Monday's biggest refi rate mover was the 20-year average, which subtracted 34 basis points of the 40 points it took on Friday.

Calculate monthly payments for different loan scenarios with our 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Mortgage Calculator.

Lowest Mortgage Rates by State

The lowest mortgage rates available vary depending on the state where originations occur. Mortgage rates can be influenced by state-level variations in credit score, average mortgage loan type, and size, in addition to individual lenders' varying risk management strategies.

The states with the lowest 30-year new purchase averages were Vermont, Louisiana, Mississippi, Delaware, 🅷and Iowa, while the states with the most expensive averages were Oregon, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Arizonaꦺ, California, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Utah.

What Causes Mortgage Rates to Rise or Fall?

Mortgage rates are deter🅘mined by a complex interaction of macroec🍸onomic and industry factors, such as:

• The level and direction of the bond market, especially 10-year Treasury yields
• The Federal Reserve's current monetary policy, especially as it relates to bond buying and funding government-backed mortgages
• Competition between mortgage lenders and across loan types

Because fluctuations can be caused by any number of these at once, it's generally difficult to attribute the change to any one factor.

Macroeconomic factors kept the mortgage market relatively low for much of 2021. In particular, the Federal Reserve had been buying billions of dollars of bonds in response to the pandemic's economic pressures. This bond-buying policy is a major influencer of mortgage rates.

But starting in Nov. 2021, the Fed began tapering its bond purchases downward, making sizable reductions each month until reaching net zero in March 2022.

Since that time, the Fed has been aggressively raising the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:federal funds rate to fight decades-🥀high inflation. While the fed funds rate can influence mortgage rates, it does not directly do so. In fact, t﷽he fed funds rate and mortgage rates can move in opposite directions.

However, given the historic speed and magnitude of the Fed's 2022 and 2023 rate increases—raising the benchmark rate 5.25 percentage points over the last 18 months—even the indirect influence of the fed funds rate has resulted in an upward impact on mortgage rates over the last two years.

The Fed has opted to hold rates steady at its last three meetings, the last of which concluded Wednesday. Though Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated the rate-setting committee is leaving the possibility of another rate hike on the table, should inflation not progress further downward as projected, data released with the recent Fed announcement show that none of the 19 Fed members expect another rate incre๊♉ase. In fact, the committee's median expectation is that three rate cuts wi🔥ll be implemented by the end of 2024, with 80% predicting two to four rate decreases. The Fed's next ﷽rate-setting meeting will conclude Jan. 31.

How We Track Mortgage Rates

The national averages cited above were calculated based on the lowest rate offered by more than 200 of the country's top lenders, assuming a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 80% and an applicant with a FICO credit score in the 700–760 range. The resulting rates are representative of what customers should expect to see when receiving actual quotes from lenders based on their qualifications, which may vary from advertised 🃏teaser rates.

For 🀅our map of the best stat𝔍e rates, the lowest rate currently offered by a surveyed lender in that state is listed, assuming the same parameters of an 80% LTV and a credit score between 700–760.