U.S. long-term mortgage rates eased for the second consecutive week, but remain elevated compared with the same period last year. This was reported by infohub.kz.

According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.65%, down from 6.67% last week. A year ago, the average rate was 6.58%. The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage also declined, dropping to 5.95% from 5.96% last week. However, a year ago, it stood at 5.69%.

Despite the recent pullback, mortgage rates have been mostly rising this year, limiting homebuyers' purchasing power. Elevated rates can lead prospective home shoppers to delay buying a home, one reason U.S. home sales have been sluggish this year.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including inflation, policy decisions from the Federal Reserve, and bond market investors' expectations for the economy. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Both mortgage rates and the bond market have been mostly rising this year due to the U.S. war with Iran, which has fueled expectations for hotter inflation as crude oil prices soared. Despite easing oil prices recently, long-term bond yields remain steeper than they were before the conflict began in late February, pushing mortgage rates to tread higher.

With bond yields marching higher in recent months on worries about high inflation, gargantuan government debts, and other factors, the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would at least double the amount of U.S. government bonds that it planned to buy back over the next few months. This move helped pull yields down after the 10-year Treasury's yield had hit its highest level in more than a year.

The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.71% as of midday Thursday on the bond market. Before the war, it was just 3.97% in late February.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low. U.S. sales of previously-occupied homes again slowed in July.