Average US long-term mortgage rates climb to 6.29% this week

By MATT OTT
AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates jumped by more than a quarter-point this week to their highest level since 2007, a result of the Federal Reserve’s intensified effort to tamp down decades-high inflation and cool the economy. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate climbed to 6.29% from 6.02% last week. That’s the highest its been since August of 2007, a year before the the housing market crash triggered the Great Recession. On Wednesday, the Fed bumped its benchmark borrowing rate by another three-quarters of a point. Rapidly rising interest rates sent US home sales down again in August, the seventh straight monthly decline.