Editor's Note: Investopedia will not publish daily mortgage rate news on Monday, May 26, in observance of Memorial Day. We will return to our daily coverage on Tuesday, May 27.

The states with 🦋the cheapest 30-year mortgage refinance rates Thursday were California, Florida, New Yꦐork, Tennessee, Connecticut, Washington, North Carolina, and New Jersey. The eight low-rate states registered refi averages between 7.14% and 7.28%.

Meanwhile, the states with Thursday's most expensive 30-year refinance rates were Hawaii, West Virginia, Alaska, Kansas, Missouri, and South Dakota. The range of 30-year refi averages for the highest-rate states was 7.38% to 7.44%.

Mortgage refinance rateꦬs vary by the state where they originate. Different lenders operate in different regions, and rates can be influenced by state-level variations in credit score, average loan size, and regulations. Lenders also have varyin꧑g risk management strategies that influence the rates they offer.

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

National Mortgage Refinance Rate Averages

Rates for 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:30-year refinance mortgages ticked up 2 basis points Thuဣrsday to boost thꦇe average to 7.32%. That's the highest average since July 30, 2024.

Back in March, however, 30-year refinance rates sank to a 6.71% average, their cheapest level of 2025ಞ. And last September, rates plunged to a two-year low of 6.01%.

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.

What Causes Mortgage Rates to Rise or Fall?

Mortgage rates are dete🌌rmined by a complex interaction of macroeconomic and industry factors, such as:

• The level and direction of the bond market, especially 10-year Treasury yields
• The 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网: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 any number of these can cause fluctuations simultaneously, it's generally difficult to attribute any 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 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:bond-buying policy is a major influencer of mortgage rates.

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

Between that time and July 2023, the Fed aggressively raised the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:federal funds rate to fight dec✅ades-high inflation. While the fed funds rate can influence mortgage rates, it doesn't directly do so. In fact, the fed funds rate and mort🐻gage rates can move in opposite directions.

But given the historic speed and magnitude of the Fed's 2022 and 2023 rate increases—raising the benchmark rate 5.25 percentage points over 16 months—even the indirect influence of the fed funds rate has resulted in a dramatic upward impact on mortgage rates over the last two years.

The Fed maintained the federal funds rate at its peak level for almost 14 months, beginning in July 2023. But in September, the central bank 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:announced a first rate cut of 0.50 percentage points, and then followed that with quarter-point reductions on November and December.

For its third meeting of the new year, however, the Fed opted to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:hold rates steady—and it’s possible the central bank may not make another rate cut for months. With a total of eight rate-setting meetings scheduled per year, that means we could see multiple rate-hold announcements in 2025.

How We Track Mortgage Rates

The national and state averages cited above are provided as is via the Zillow Mortgage API, assuming a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 80% (i.e., a down payment of at least 20%) and an applicant credit score in the 680–739 range. The resulting rates represent what borrowers should expect when receiving quotes from lenders based on their qualification🉐s, which may vary from advertised teaser rates. © Zillow, Inc., 2025. Use is subject to the Zillow Terms of Use.