The average U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.95% for the week ending Sept. 17 \u2014 up from 6.76% the prior week and the highest level in more than 19 months \u2014 Freddie Mac said Thursday, the Associated Press reported via the New York Post. A year earlier the average was 6.26%. The 15-year fixed average climbed to 6.26% from 6.09%.<\/p>\n
Mortgage rates generally track the 10-year Treasury yield, which breached 5% earlier in the week for the first time since 2023 after inflation and oil-shock fears. The Fed\u2019s Wednesday quarter-point hike to 3.75%\u20134.00% does not set mortgage rates directly, but bond investors watch Fed policy closely; the central bank also signaled another hike later this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rate hike all but guarantees that mortgage rates will remain stuck at or above the 7% threshold,\u201d Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant told AP \u2014 a psychological and financial barrier that squeezes affordability. Existing-home sales have been stuck near multi-decade lows as higher borrowing costs and thin inventory keep would-be buyers on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/strong> New York Post (AP)<\/a>; National Association of Realtors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Freddie Mac\u2019s long-term rate hits a 19-month high as the Fed\u2019s hike locks in the squeeze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bb-mortgage-7pct-0919.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}