Mortgage rates dip today: Here's what you need to know

Mortgage rates are on the move after some of these moves we've been discussing. Diana Olick is here with the details. Diana, what can you tell us? Well, Kelly, mortgage rates had been moving higher to start this week after dropping again last week, all in anticipation, as you said, of the release of the CPI this morning. But it all turned out to be kind of a mixed bag and a complicated one. But I promise I will explain. Let me start first with the rate. The average on the 30 year fixed moved a tiny bit lower, just three basis points to six point seven five percent today. That according to Mortgage News Daily. It should have moved even lower. But here's what's happened, according to CEO Matt Graham of that same company, owner's equivalent rent, which is a key component of housing. Inflation has been super stubborn to fall. But today's CPI report showed the slowest pace of rent inflation since 2021. That increased the optimism that inflation is making progress toward target levels that in turn both bolsters the outlook for a Fed rate cut next week. So bonds initially rallied on this, which would have pushed mortgage rates down a lot. But then some other factors hit later in the morning, including global market reaction to the policy announcement from the Bank of Canada and just a general consolidation in treasuries ahead of today's 10 year auction, which you just discussed. So to put all of this into perspective, mortgage rates have been floating in a very narrow range over the last few weeks, down from the seven percent area where we were in November, but way up from that low six percent range where we were for much of September. And Kelly, you'll remember in September that was where we started to see a surge in home sales because of those lower rates that has stalled out. And we're really waiting for rates to come back down again to get any juice in the usually slow winter market. Still nearly seven percent. Diana, thanks very much. Diana Olek.