The Economy & the Fed

Mortgage Rate

The interest rate on a home loan. The benchmark is the average 30-year fixed rate from Freddie Mac's weekly survey of lenders. It tracks the 10-year Treasury yield plus a margin, not the Fed's overnight rate directly. A higher rate raises the monthly payment on the same house: on a $400,000 loan, each extra percentage point adds roughly $250 to $275 a month, which is why housing is among the parts of the economy most sensitive to interest rates.

Educational information, not investment advice. See it applied across the screener →