Rates on 30-year new purchase mortgages dropped for a fifth day Thursday, slipping another 3 basis points to create a week-long decline of 23 points. The current average of 6.60% establishes a new low point for this year, with the last time rates were cheaper being two weeks before Christmas.

Trump could order the Treasury Department to start buying mortgage-backed securities, like when the Federal Reserve bought roughly $1.45 trillion of MBSs during the Great Recession. That was popularly known as quantitative easing. Buying MBS can reduce mortgage rates by increasing competition and increasing mortgage market liquidity.

Rewinding further, the 30-year average notched a high 7.37% last spring, so today's rates are significantly improved vs. 10 months ago. They're also 1.3 percentage points cheaper than the historic 23-year peak of 8.01% reached in October 2023.

These are today's mortgage and refinance rates. Mortgage rates are the lowest they've been since December, but it's unclear where they'll go next.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. eased for the fifth week in a row to its lowest level since late December, a welcome boost for prospective homebuyers in what’s traditionally the bus

Mortgage rates fell for a sixth week in a row to the lowest level in more than two months, Freddie Mac said on Thursday. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is 6.76%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond continues to inch lower and that’s having the effect of pulling down mortgage rates. The bond’s yield has fallen fro