NEW YORK, March 23, 2026, 14:25 EDT
Mortgage rates in the U.S. dipped just slightly on Monday. Mortgage News Daily’s daily index showed the top-tier 30-year fixed rate coming in at 6.49%—that’s a minor decline of 4 basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, from Friday’s level. Freddie Mac’s latest weekly survey, as of March 19, still reported the benchmark 30-year fixed at 6.22%. Mortgage News Daily
Borrowing costs remain a headwind for affordability right as the spring selling season picks up. U.S. construction spending slid 0.3% in January. Outlays for new single-family projects dipped 0.2%. Sales of new homes tumbled 17.6%, dropping to a 587,000 annualized rate—the lowest seen since October 2022. Reuters
Bonds took the spotlight Monday. Early on, oil tumbled as much as 13%, and yields on the 10-year Treasury slipped by up to 8.7 basis points before leveling out, following President Donald Trump’s announcement to delay U.S. strikes on Iranian power plants. Fiona Cincotta of City Index called it a shift in pricing around “worst-case expectations.” Mortgage News Daily noted a moderate uptick in MBS—those mortgage-backed securities—potentially giving some lenders room to lower rates before the session wrapped. Reuters
Still, the day-to-day reading is outpacing last week’s official survey figure. Freddie Mac’s weekly number tracks conventional, conforming purchase loans—20% down, top-tier credit—spanning Thursday to Wednesday. Mortgage News Daily, on the other hand, updates its lender index every business day. That gap makes Monday’s daily rate noticeably higher than the Freddie Mac average reported for March 19. Freddie Mac
“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ticked higher to 6.22% this week, but still sits about half a point below where it stood a year ago,” said Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac, on Thursday. Khater noted buyers are heading into a “more affordable spring homebuying season than last,” with both purchase applications and pending sales on the rise. Freddie Mac
Still, there’s only so much optimism to go around. Pending home sales climbed 1.8% in February, but that bump came before the Iran flare-up sent rates higher again. Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, flagged possible “headwinds” for the spring market—Middle East tensions, inflation, and changing tariffs all in the mix. Reuters
Homebuilder stocks climbed along with the broader market. D.R. Horton picked up 4.6% in afternoon trading, Lennar advanced 4.1%, and PulteGroup was up 3.9% as Wall Street bounced and oil prices eased, drawing buyers back to names that had been under pressure. Reuters
The risk remains. On Friday, Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily noted that the average lender rate pushed past 6.5%—matching levels last seen on Sept. 3, 2025. Hopes for a consistent drop below 6% like in February? “Highly unlikely” anytime soon, Graham said, even if the war wraps up quickly. Mortgage News Daily
Borrowers are getting mixed signals this week. Sure, rates have backed off their sharpest intraday spikes, yet they’re still sitting well above the 5.98% mark logged right before the war began. A renewed climb in oil or another jump in Treasury yields could squeeze affordability further, right as buyers and builders head into the peak season. Reuters
