Weekly Mortgage Rates Rise Again, While Home Sales Increase, Too

This article was first published on NerdWallet.com.

Mortgage rates have climbed five weeks in a row and are now at their highest levels since the week before Thanksgiving.

The average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.32% in the week ending May 2, according to rates provided to NerdWallet by Zillow. It was an increase of nine basis points over the previous week. (A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.) It marked the highest level since mid-November.

Rates rise as inflation plateaus

The 30-year mortgage has risen 63 basis points in five weeks. That's unusual. When mortgage rates go up, they usually climb unhurriedly, like they're taking the stairs. But they hopped an elevator a little more than a month ago. Inflation is the culprit.

The core consumer price index stood at 5.6% year-over-year in March 2023. Six months later, core inflation had slowed to 4.1%. It looked like inflation was steadily moving toward the Federal Reserve's goal of 2% after the Fed had raised short-term interest rates 11 times in a year and a half.

But since last fall,...