A for sale sign stands outside a residence in Niles, Ill., Monday, July 1, 2024. On Wednesday, July 3, 2024, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week.
The uptick follows a four-week pullback in the average rate, which has mostly hovered around 7% this year. The yield, which topped 4.7% in late April, has been generally declining since then on hopes that inflation is slowing enough to get the Fed to lower its main interest rate from the highest level in more than two decades.
Economists are forecasting that mortgage rates will ease modestly by the end of this year, though most projections call for the average rate on a 30-year home loan to remain above 6%. That's still double what the average rate was just three years ago.