Mortgage Rates Today, Feb. 24, 2025: Rates Lower. But Will the Good News Last?
The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 6.78% yesterday, unchanged since the day before. The 15-year fixed mortgage rate stood at 5.91%, the same as one the day before. The 30-year FHA mortgage averaged 6.11% yesterday, having stayed the same. Meanwhile, the 30-year jumbo mortgage rate was 7.12%, reflecting no change.
The bigger picture
Oops! Last Friday morning, we wrote, "We'll be surprised if today's [S&P purchasing managers' indexes, aka PMIs] — one each for the services and manufacturing sectors in February — move mortgage rates far." Boy, were we wrong?
Mortgage rates dropped moderately again on the report's publication. And that brought them to lows last seen on Dec. 18, according to Mortgage News Daily.
"Markets were in risk-off mode in the wake of a wave of economic data that showed cracks in key parts of the economy," reported the Barron's Preview and Review e-newsletter that afternoon. "Bond yields were falling, and the only major S&P sector on the rise was consumer staples.
"S&P Global's survey of activity in the manufacturing and services sectors came up short of expectations," Barron's continued. "Wall Street was already jittery about the economy after Walmart's weak outlook on Thursday."
Regular readers will know we often say that any economic report can move mortgage rates if it contains shockingly good or bad data, even though most rarely budge those rates at all. But we can't repeat that caveat every day, and we apologize if we misled new readers.
Once the S&P data turned out to be as bad as it did, markets' reactions weren't a big surprise. Mortgage rates tend to rise when the economy's strong and fall when it's struggling.
Are things changing?
The question now is whether economic data will deteriorate or improve in the coming days and weeks. Just because things looked grim on Friday, doesn't mean everything's suddenly falling apart.
For instance, last Thursday, Goldman Sachs released a briefing document. It said: "Despite a slew of tariff announcements, policy uncertainty, and concerns in recent weeks about rising inflation, the outlook for US economic growth still looks to be on track, says Jan Hatzius, chief economist and head of Goldman Sachs Research."
For mortgage rates to enter a sustained and significant downward trend, we'd probably need to see economic growth slowing and perhaps going negative alongside rising unemployment and falling inflation. Right now, none of those looks likely, but these things can change quickly.
Mortgage Rate Trends: Past 90 Days
Purchase Rates
| Loan Type | Rate | APR | Daily Change | Monthly Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30-Year Fixed | 6.78% | 6.82% | +0% | -0.23% |
| 15-Year Fixed | 5.91% | 5.97% | +0% | -0.14% |
| 30-Year Fixed FHA | 6.11% | 6.94% | +0% | -0.25% |
| 30-Year Fixed VA | 6.23% | 6.38% | +0% | -0.17% |
| 30-Year Fixed USDA | 6.22% | 6.36% | +0% | -0.12% |
| 30-Year Fixed Jumbo | 7.12% | 7.14% | +0% | -0.16% |
| 5/6 Year ARM | 6.78% | 6.82% | +0% | -0.1% |
Refinance Rates
| Loan Type | Rate | APR | Daily Change | Monthly Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30-Year Fixed | 6.88% | 6.91% | +0% | -0.23% |
| 15-Year Fixed | 5.9% | 5.95% | +0% | -0.15% |
| 30-Year Fixed FHA | 6.1% | 6.93% | +0% | -0.24% |
| 30-Year Fixed VA | 6.29% | 6.43% | +0% | -0.12% |
| 5/6 Year ARM | 6.82% | 6.86% | +0% | -0.09% |
Coming up
Although economic reports are the main drivers of changes to mortgage rates, they're not the only ones. The general mood in markets and economically consequential news can also affect those rates.
Mortgage rates today and later in the week
There is nothing on today's MarketWatch economic calendar. So, any movements in mortgage rates won't be caused by reports.
Things liven up later in the week, with the three reports most likely to affect those rates being:
- January's personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index (Friday). This is the Federal Reserve's favorite gauge of inflation.
- February's consumer confidence index (tomorrow). This props up a large chunk of the economy.
- The second reading (of three) of gross domestic product (GDP) during the fourth quarter of last year (Thursday). This is the main measure of economic growth.
