Today's Best Mortgage & Refinance Rates for July 10, 2020

The week is ending with historically-low interest rates and some markets reaching pre-pandemic levels of buyer interest.

According to Realtor.com's Housing Market Recovery Index—which compares search traffic, median list prices, new listing, and median time on the market to January 2020—the western and northeastern real estate markets have recovered to pre-COVID levels. The greatest improvements have been in large metro areas including Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, and Los Angeles. In the south, where coronavirus cases have been surging, the recovery is lagging, as is the case with the midwest.

While the national housing inventory was down 31% over the previous week, new listings were down just 4% compared to last year and experts expect new listings will continue to come on the market.

"The consistent, record-level homebuyer interest we've detected on Realtor.com over the last five weeks is setting up the tightest summer home-buying season on record," said Javier Vivas, Realtor.com's director of economic research. "With supply at record lows, the backlog of demand portends increased competition and a seller's market in the weeks ahead."

While the limited number of available homes for sale has pushed sales prices higher, it has also increased the rate at which homes are selling. According to a report by Redfin, released Wednesday, 47% of new listings sold within two weeks, the fastest pace since the real estate broker started keeping track in 2012.

"We have to educate our homebuyers about what is happening right now, because they tend to think that due to the coronavirus things aren't selling, or prices will drop and they can wait," said Redfin Miami agent Maria Carcia Gonzalez. "In reality, for affordable single-family homes, you have to be ready to make an offer close to list price and expect multiple offers with homes going off the market quickly."

Average Mortgage Rates Today

For the week ending July 9, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage set a new record low of 3.03% with 0.8 points paid, according to Freddie Mac. That's 0.04 percentage points below the previous low of 3.07%, set a week earlier.

The average rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 2.51% with 0.8 points paid, down 0.05 percentage points from the previous week, while the average rate on a 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage increased to 3.02% with 0.3 points paid.

Average Refinance Rates Today

A year ago the average mortgage rate was 3.75%. A homeowner with a $250,000 mortgage balance paying 3.75% on a 30-year loan could cut their monthly payment from $1,158 to $1,058 by financing at today’s lower rates. (It is important to consider closing fees and that refinancing could reset the clock on your mortgage, meaning you will have to make payments longer.)

Today’s Mortgage Rates

Of course, mortgage rates vary widely by location and personal factors like location, the size of your down payment and your credit score. Here are today’s advertised mortgage rates at some of the mortgage industry’s largest lenders. (The rates you see may be different.)