The interest rate charged on a home loan, and one of the most personally felt numbers in the whole economy.
A mortgage rate is the interest rate a lender charges on a loan to buy a home, and it moves largely in step with the 10-year Treasury yield rather than the Fed's own rate directly, though the two are closely related. A one-percentage-point move in mortgage rates can change a monthly payment by hundreds of dollars on an average home, which is why rate moves that sound abstract in a headline translate almost immediately into real decisions about whether a family can afford to buy, sell, or refinance.
Part of the Open Bell Glossary — plain-English explanations of the terms that come up on the show. Browse every term.