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Mortgage rates rose this week after newly released economic data strengthened the case for Federal Reserve rate hikes this year.<\/p>\n
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.52% in the week through Wednesday, up from 6.48% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac data.<\/p>\n
The latest jump came after the US added an unexpectedly high 172,000 jobs<\/a> in May, and new inflation data showed prices soared 4.2%<\/a> last month from May 2025, largely due to surging energy costs related to the Iran War.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, the data reinforce a \u2018higher-for-longer\u2019 view: Markets have largely abandoned hopes for rate cuts this year, Treasury yields<\/a> rose, and mortgage rates restarted their ascent,\u201d Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow, said in a statement.<\/p>\n About two-thirds of traders now expect that the Fed will raise benchmark interest rates at least once before the end of the year, according to CME FedWatch data. Although the Fed doesn\u2019t directly control mortgage rates, they are influenced by expectations of future central bank interest rate policy.<\/p>\n Mortgage rates have spent the last four weeks hovering around 6.5%, eroding affordability for buyers. Even so, buying and selling activity picked up in May,<\/a> a sign that the market\u2019s traditional busy season hasn\u2019t been a complete bust.<\/p>\n