{"id":658,"date":"2026-10-17T14:15:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=658"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:16:10","slug":"mortgage-rates-stuck-740-three-year-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/?p=658","title":{"rendered":"MORTGAGE RATES STUCK AT 7.40% \u2014 A THREE-YEAR HIGH! | The 10-year is still above 5% and another Fed hike is on the table. Sellers are slashing prices anyway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you were hoping this was the weekend to finally lock a mortgage, the bond market has bad news.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The rate.<\/strong> Freddie Mac says the average 30-year fixed mortgage was <strong>7.40%<\/strong> for the week ending Oct. 15, unchanged from the week before. A year ago it was <strong>6.27%<\/strong>. The 15-year fixed averaged 6.71%, down slightly from 6.73%. Realtor.com calls it a <strong>three-year high<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blame the 10-year.<\/strong> Mortgage rates track the 10-year Treasury yield, and that yield is still above 5%. WSJ market data shows it closed Friday, Oct. 16, at <strong>5.085%<\/strong>. It closed at 5.237% on Oct. 9, so the bond market rallied this week. TreasuryBonds.com reported weekly yield drops of 5 to 16 basis points across maturities. The 52-week high is <strong>5.368%<\/strong>, set Oct. 7. Rates have barely backed off that peak.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inflation is the problem.<\/strong> September CPI came in at 3.7%, up from 3.4% and above forecasts. Core CPI rose to 2.6% from 2.4%, a sign that price pressure is spreading beyond gas. Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu said the core reading &#8220;reinforces the case for another rate hike by December and could set the stage for additional hikes in early 2027.&#8221; Realtor.com puts the federal funds rate at 3.75%\u20134% after September&#8217;s hike. Friday&#8217;s jump in oil to nearly $110 doesn&#8217;t help.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What it&#8217;s doing to housing.<\/strong> According to Realtor.com:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pending home sales <strong>plunged<\/strong> in September as buyers backed off.<\/li>\n<li>The share of listings with price cuts hit a <strong>four-year high<\/strong> in September.<\/li>\n<li>For-sale inventory grew nearly <strong>7%<\/strong> from a year ago, the fastest growth since February. Senior economist Anthony Smith says that&#8217;s unsold homes piling up, not a wave of new sellers.<\/li>\n<li>New listings fell <strong>5.1%<\/strong> year over year.<\/li>\n<li>The median asking price slipped <strong>2.3% to $415,000<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The upside, if you can find one:<\/strong> motivated sellers are negotiating. Xu&#8217;s advice is to &#8220;rate-proof&#8221; your budget so you&#8217;re ready when the right house shows up.<\/p>\n<p>For now, buyers are stuck with high rates, and so are sellers who don&#8217;t want to give up the cheap mortgage they already have. Until inflation cools, the vise stays tight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/freddiemac.gcs-web.com\/news-releases\/news-release-details\/mortgage-rates-hold-steady-740\/\">Freddie Mac: Mortgage Rates Hold Steady at 7.40%<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realtor.com\/news\/trends\/mortgage-rates-inflation-today-october-15-2026\/\">Realtor.com: Mortgage Rates Hold Steady at 3-Year High<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/market-data\/quotes\/bond\/BX\/TMUBMUSD10Y\">WSJ: U.S. 10 Year Treasury Note market data<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/treasurybonds.com\/news\/2026-10-16-treasuries-end-the-week-higher-but-oil-made-friday-a-fight\/\">TreasuryBonds.com: Treasuries End the Week Higher, But Oil Made Friday a Fight<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image: editorial illustration by Bugle Blast.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 10-year is still above 5% and another Fed hike is on the table. Sellers are slashing prices anyway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":652,"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-658","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\/10\/bb-mortgage-740-1017.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","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=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugleblast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}