Average long-term U.S. mortgage rate eases to 6.74%
By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer
The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage eased this week, offering little relief for prospective homebuyers facing recordhigh home prices.
The long-term rate slipped to 6.74% from 6.75% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.78%.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased. The average rate dropped to 5.87% from 5.92% last week. A year ago, it was 6.07%, Freddie Mac said.
Elevated mortgage rates have been weighing on the U.S. housing market, which has been in a sales slump going back to 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic.
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes, which sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years
in 2024, have remained sluggish this year and slid last month to the slowest pace since last September. Sales of new singlefamily homes edged up 0.6% last month, but the sales pace for June and May have been the slowest since last October.
While there are more homes on the market than a year ago, rising home prices and stubbornly high mortgage rates have made homeownership financially untenable for many Americans. Elevated mortgage rates are also discouraging many homeowners from selling because they locked in mortgage rates when they were much lower.
“The persistent risk of tariffdriven inflation, combined with a rising U.S. fiscal debt — expected to grow further following the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act — has helped establish a relatively high floor for interest rates, at least for now,” said Jiayi Xu, an economist at Realtor.com.
Mortgage rates are influenced
by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.
The main barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4.41% at midday Thursday, down from 4.40% late Wednesday, following the latest signals that the U.S. economy seems to be holding up OK despite all the pressures on it from tariffs and elsewhere.
Yields have moved higher for most of this month as traders bet that the Fed will hold its key short-term interest rate steady at its upcoming meeting next week, despite President Donald Trump demanding that the Fed to lower rates.
A less independent Fed could mean lower short-term rates, which influence the interest consumers pay on credit cards and auto loans, but it could have the opposite effect on the longer-term bond yields that
influence the rates on home loans.
The average rate on a 30year mortgage has remained relatively close to its high so far this year of just above 7%, set in mid-January. The 30-year rate’s low point this year was in early April when it briefly
dipped to 6.62%.
Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% this year. Recent forecasts by Realtor.com and Fannie Mae project the average rate easing to around 6.4% by the end of this year.
Jeff Chiu | AP
Homes and properties are shown in San Francisco on July 18.
killeen metro area ranks high in the number of new homes being built
By JoSEph BAhr Killeen DAily herAlD
The number of homes being built in the Killeen metropolitan statistical area continues to outpace the national average.
In the Killeen metro area, there were 18 new housing units authorized for every 1,000 existing homes, according to Construction Coverage, a construction research organization.
That was well above the national average, which was only 10.1 housing units authorized for every 1,000 homes. It was also slightly more than the state average, which was 17.9 units authorized per 1,000 homes.
Out of the 371 metro areas included in the study, the Killeen area ranked No. 53. Among midsize metro areas, the Killeen area was No. 18; there were 98 midsize metros included in the report.
That rate translated to a total of 3,646 new housing units being authorized in
2024. That was a decrease of 9.2% compared to 2022, when 4,016 homes were authorized. In 2022, the Killeen area had a rate of 20.6 housing units authorized per 1,000 housing units. That year it ranked as No. 16 among midsize metro area and No. 52 among all metro areas.
The decrease in the number of homes being built in Killeen from 2022 to 2024 mirrored national trends. The number of new homes authorized nationally fell from 11.7 to 10.1 across the same period.
Among metro areas in Texas, the Killeen area ranked as No. 8 out of the 25 places included in the study. Areas placing higher than Killeen included the Austin area and the DallasFort Worth area. Texas as a whole ranked highly in terms of new housing units authorized. The state was No. 6 out of the 50 in the United States. Idaho was first among the states and Alaska placed last when it came to new home construction.
Home construction is seen in Killeen in this Herald file photo.
herAlD | file
New home construction is seen near Featherline Road in Killeen.
heights housing market continues to lag behind Bell County
By ErIn ESkEw herAlD CorresPonDent
The housing market in Harker Heights lags behind Bell County, according to data released by the Fort Hood Area Association of Realtors.
The price of homes in Harker Heights has decreased by 3.5% to a median cost of $306,000. This decrease is mirrored in the price per square foot which has decreased 9.4% to $140 per square foot.
Closed sales are down in Harker Heights by 18.2% from the previous year with only 27 homes sold in May, the data shows.
The median price of homes has gone up by 1.2% in Bell County, for a median price of $286,500 reported in May, according to data from the Fort Hood Area Association of Realtors. Although the price of homes has gone up, the median price per square foot has decreased by 3.2%, for a cost of about $156 per square foot.
Closed sales have increased by 10.3% with 515 homes sold in May.
As of the date when the data was compiled, there were 2,406 active listings across the county, which is an increase of 28.9% over the same period in 2024.
Of those listings, 151 were in Harker Heights, which reflects 5.2 months of inventory — up 1.6% over May of 2024.
Inventory has gone up by 1.3% in Bell County, with 5.8 months worth of real estate inventory.
Data shows homes in Bell County stayed on the market for about 79 days, which is a week longer than reported in May of 2024. Closing time has gone down by two days, with an anticipated 29 days to close.
While the time for closing increased by two days to 31, homes in Harker Heights are on the market for about 49 days, which is nine days less than in May of 2024.
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Warriors Legacy subdivision in Harker Heights recently.
housing market slowing in Copperas Cove
The Copperas Cove housing market is trailing slightly behind the broader county, with fewer home sales despite a greater dip in home values, according to data released by the Fort Hood Area Association of Realtors.
The median price of homes in Coryell County is reported at $231,500 in May, which is a 7.6 percent decrease over the same period last year. Sales have gone up by 6.3 percent with 85 homes sold in the month of May.
In Copperas Cove, the median price of homes dropped 10.3 percent to $221,500, however the data shows there was a 5.4 percent decrease in homes sold this May compared to the previous year, with 53 homes sold in the city.
The 318 homes on the market in Coryell County reflect 4.7 months of inventory, which
is an increase of 12.8 percent in listings, and almost a full month more inventory compared to the same time last year.
Homes in the county stay on the market for an average of 71 days, which is six days less than the same time last year, and closing takes roughly 34 days.
With the average price per square foot just over $2 less in Copperas Cove, there are 195 active listings — an increase of 36.4 percent over the same period in 2024. The 4.3 months of inventory is 1.1 percent higher than last year.
Homes in Copperas Cove are staying on the market for an average of 55 days, with another 30 days to close.
MiKe BArtoszeK | herAlD
The Copperas Cove housing market is trailing slightly behind the broader county, with fewer home sales despite a greater dip in home values.
