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Mortgage interest Interest rates fell this week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed the average interest rate on the benchmark Mortgage with a fixed term of 30 years fell to 6.21% from last week’s 6.22%.
A year ago, the average interest rate on a 30-year loan was 6.72%.
Mortgage rates fell to 6.21% this week, according to Freddie Mac. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“The average 30-year mortgage rate has remained within a narrow range of 10 basis points over the past two months,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “With rates half a percent lower than last year, purchase requests are 10% above the same time a year ago.”
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The average interest rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage fell to 5.47% from 5.54% last week.
The latest data from Freddie Mac comes about a week after the Federal Reserve has lowered the reference interest rate by 25 basis points to a new bandwidth of 3.5% to 3.75%.
Mortgage rates are not directly affected by the Fed’s interest rate decision, but closely follow the interest rate on ten-year government bonds. The ten-year yield fluctuated around 4.12% on Thursday afternoon.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee at the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, December 10, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
According to Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, homebuyers are in a more favorable position now than they were a year ago.
“Mortgage rates have fallen to the low 6% range and inventories remain well above last year’s levels, giving buyers more options and more flexibility,” Jones said. “Renters have also seen affordability improve, with rents falling for the 28th month in a row in November.”
