Mortgage Rates Hold Steady at 3-Year High as Bond Market Stabilizes

Mortgage rates held steady at a three-year high this week as the bond market stabilized, helped by an influx of investor cash from a selloff in technology and AI stocks.The average rate on 30-year fixed home loans was unchanged at 7.40% for the week ending Oct. 15, according to Freddie Mac. For perspective, rates averaged 6.27% one year ago."The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage remained unchanged this week," says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist.On Wednesday, the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) measuring overall prices over the last 12 months came in at 3.7%, up from 3.4% the previous month and higher than projected by economists.Concerned about how inflation and subsequent rising interest rates may curtail the debt-financed buildout of AI data centers and weigh on the tech sector, investors turned to long-term Treasuries. As a result, the 10-year Treasury yield, which mortgage rate closely follow, shed almost 13 basis points to 5.06% in morning trading on Thursday. Bond prices and yields move inversely, so the falling yield reflects the bidding up of bond prices.What’s more, core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose to 2.6% year over year, up ...