Associated Press (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. rose slightly for the second week in a row, a modest setback for prospective home shoppers as the spring homebuying season ramps up.
The rate rose to 6.67% from 6.65% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.87%.
Including this week, the average rate on a 30-year home loan has risen only twice in the past nine weeks, a welcome trend for aspiring homebuyers struggling to afford a home after years of soaring home prices.
“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has stayed under 7% for nine consecutive weeks, which is helpful for potential buyers and sellers alike,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week, pushing the average rate to 5.83% from 5.8% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.21%, Freddie Mac said.
Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions.
After climbing to just above 7% in mid-January, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has been mostly declining, loosely following the moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.
The yield, which was nearing 4.8% in mid-January, has mostly fallen since then, reflecting worries about the economy’s growth and the fallout from the Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on imported goods from many of the nation’s key trade partners. The yield was at 4.23% in midday trading Thursday.
Tariffs can drive inflation higher, which could translate into higher yields on the 10-year Treasury note, pushing up mortgage rates. That’s because bond investors demand higher returns as long as inflation remains elevated.
The Fed has been holding its key interest rate steady this year, after cutting it sharply through the end of last year. While lower rates can help give the economy a boost, they can also stoke inflation.
On Wednesday, the central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged. It also signaled that it still expects to cut rates twice this year, even as it sees inflation staying stubbornly elevated.
While the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, its actions can ultimately influence borrowing costs for mortgages and other consumer loans.
“In the near term, we expect mortgage rates to remain in a fairly narrow range, between 6.5% and 7%, which should support the spring housing market,” said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. They rose 4.2% last month from January, but were down 1.2% from February last year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
FILE - A sign stands outside a home for sale in the Alamo Placits neighborhood Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in central Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — Kitty Dukakis, the wife of former Massachusetts governor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, who spoke openly about her struggles with depression and addiction, has died. She was 88.
Dukakis died on Friday night surrounded by her family, her son, John Dukakis, said on Saturday by telephone. She fought to make the world better, “sharing her vulnerabilities to help others face theirs,” her family said in a statement.
“She was loving, feisty and fun, and had a keen sensitivity to people from all walks of life,” the family said. “She and our dad, Michael Dukakis, shared an enviable partnership for over 60 years and loved each other deeply.”
Dukakis won high marks as a political campaigner during her husband's 1988 presidential efforts, stumping tirelessly for him. She was called a key influence in his decision to seek the presidency.
She even figured in the opening question of a 1988 presidential debate, when her husband was asked: "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis said he would not, and his unemotional response was widely criticized.
Earlier in the campaign, in 1987, Dukakis revealed she had overcome a 26-year addiction to amphetamines five years earlier after receiving treatment. She said she began taking diet pills at age 19.
Her husband made anti-drug efforts a major issue and she became prominent in the effort to educate youngsters against the perils of drug and alcohol abuse.
But a few months after Michael Dukakis lost the election to Vice President George H.W. Bush, Kitty Dukakis entered a 60-day treatment program for alcoholism. Several months later she suffered a relapse and was hospitalized after drinking rubbing alcohol.
In her 1990 autobiography, "Now You Know," she blamed her mother for much of her alcohol and drug addiction and a long history of low self-esteem. In 2006, she wrote another book, "Shock," which credits the electroconvulsive therapy she began in 2001 for relieving the depression she had suffered for years. The treatment, she wrote, "opened a new reality for me."
Current Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called Dukakis “a force for good in public life and behind the scenes,” a leader in the effort to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten, and an advocate for children, women and refugees.
"She spoke courageously about her struggles with substance use disorder and mental health, which serves as an inspiration to us all to break down stigma and seek help,” Healey said in a statement.
Dukakis used her personal pain to help others, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement on social media on Saturday.
"Her legacy will live on in the policies she helped shape and the people she inspired to speak their own truths,” Campbell said.
Dukakis broke ground by speaking openly about her struggles and championed support for the homeless and political refugees, said Maria Ivanova, director of Northeastern University’s Policy School, which hosts the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.
“Kitty Dukakis brought honesty, compassion, and strength to public life,” Ivanova said in a statement. “Her legacy is one of service, resilience, and truth-telling.”
Dukakis and her future husband met while attending high school in Brookline, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. He was dull and frugal; she was dramatic and fancy. He is Greek Orthodox; she was Jewish.
Dukakis, who was divorced and had a 3-year-old son, married Dukakis in 1963, and they had two children, Andrea and Kara.
Dukakis, whose late father, Harry Ellis Dickson, was associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, earned degrees in modern dance and broadcasting.
After the presidential election, in 1989, Bush appointed her to be a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
She earlier served on the President's Commission on the Holocaust in 1979 and on the board of directors of the Refugee Policy Group. She has also been a member of the Task Force on Cambodian Children.
By the late 1990s, Dukakis and her husband divided their time between Massachusetts and California, where she was a social worker and he was a professor for part of the year at the University of California, Los Angeles.
FILE - Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, appear onstage prior to reading letters between John Adams and his wife, Abigail, during a Massachusetts Historical Society program at Faneuil Hall in Boston Monday, Nov. 19, 2007. AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
FILE - Kitty Dukakis listens to a question from the audience during a speaking engagement at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa, Wednesday, March 15, 1989. (AP Photo/Sean Kardon, File)
FILE - Gov Michael Dukakis and his wife Kitty wave the American flag as they are cheered by delegates after Dukakis accepted the nomination as the presidential candidate in July 21, 1988 at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File)
FILE - Kitty Dukakis, left, and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis are seen outside their home in Brookline, Massachusetts, March 7, 1989. (AP Photo/David Tenenbaum, File)
