Today's Mortgage Rates - 07/12/2025

Mortgage Rates Drift Higher

After weeks of modest declines, mortgage rates drifted higher this week./p>

As reported by Freddie Mac today, the average offered interest rate for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rose by five basis points (0.05%) to 6.72%, squarely in the middle of a three-week range.

Average offered rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages rose by just a touch more, sporting a six basis point increase. This put the average rate for the most common shorter-term mortgage at 5.86%, just above a four-month low.

At present, a 5/1 ARM might offer a homebuyer a lower-cost alternative to a long-term fixed-rate mortgage, and the difference in rate between 30-year FRMs and 5-year hybrid ARMs expanded a little this week again. The Mortgage Bankers Association said that the initial fixed interest rate on a hybrid 5-year ARM increased by two basis points, rising to 6.01%.

With the decrease, the gap in rate compared to a 30-year FRM widened to seventy-one basis points (0.71%), offering homebuyers a chance at interest savings of over $10,700 over the next five years with a $300,000 loan amount. To learn more about ARMs, you should read HSH's Comprehensive Guide to Adjustable Rate Mortgages.

At a time of year when financial market activity typically begins to slow, mortgage and other interest rates often wander about, directionless. This year promises to be somewhat different, in that the date implementing new tariffs on a range of trading partners has again been kicked down the road. Originally slated for July 9, the so-called "pause" in tariffs has been extended until August 1.

While that specific date doesn't have great significance for interest rates or even inflation, it may complicate the expected timing of the next cut by the Federal Reserve. Any increase in levies will take a bit of time to start to be seen in price pressures. Any from newly-expanded levies may not even start to be seen until later in the year, beyond the Fed's September meeting, when a cut in rates is currently widely expected to occur. The Fed may choose not to trim rates if a measurable increase in inflation is expected to come.

As such, it's seemingly back to "wait and see" for the Fed, leaving only emergent economic data to move interest rates over the coming days and weeks. This week has featured precious little of that, but the calendar gets busier over the next week, when new data on inflation for June will be released, among a burst of fresh looks at various aspects of the economy.

The yields that most influence mortgage rates are in a little backing-and-filling mode at the moment, but the general tenor of them seems biased toward slight upward movement. As such, we expect to see flat to marginally higher mortgage rates in the market during the next few days.

Each week in HSH's MarketTrends newsletter, we track and discuss economic conditions that affect mortgage rates and their impact on housing markets and consumers. Read the most recent edition of MarketTrends or subscribe for email delivery.