Editor’s Note: Investopedia did not publish daily mortgage rate news on Independence Day on Friday, July 4th. Therefore, today we report the average for Thursday, July 3rd.
The states with the cheapest 30-year refinancing rate on Thursday were New York, California, Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey and Texas. These nine states have registered refi on average between 6.73% and 6.96%.
Meanwhile, the states with the most expensive 30-year refinancing rates on Thursday were West Virginia, Alaska, Arizona, Missouri, Montana and Vermont. These high rate states registered an average of refi between 7.06% and 7.10%.
Mortgage refinance rates vary depending on the state in which they occur. Different lenders operate in different regions, and fees can be affected by state-level fluctuations in credit scores, average loan size, and regulations. Lenders also have a variety of risk management strategies that affect the fees they provide.
Rates vary widely from lender to lender, so it’s always wise to have your best mortgage options and compare rates regularly, regardless of the type of mortgage you’re looking for.
The national refinance rate is nearly three months
The fees for a 30-year refinance mortgage that earned three bases points on Thursday. The current average of 7.00% is still close to the 30-year Refi lowest average since April 4th.
However, for homeowners in March, refinancing was more affordable as prices plummeted to a 6.71% low of 2025. Also, last September, the Refi rate in 2010 fell to its lowest level in two years, at 6.01%.
Lenders’ highest mortgage rates national average lending rates average 30 years fixed 7.00% FHA 30 years fixed 7.44% 15 years fixed 5.81% Jumbo 30 years fixed 7.00% 5/6 ARM 7.53%
Pay attention to the teaser rate
The fees we publish are not directly compared to teaser rates advertised online as these rates are cherry picked as the averages you see here and the most appealing ones. Teaser fees may include paying points in advance, based on a virtual borrower with an ultra-high credit score, or may be less than a typical loan. The rate you ultimately protect may differ from the averages shown here, as it is based on factors like your credit score, income, and so on.
Use a mortgage calculator to calculate monthly payments for various loan scenarios.
What causes mortgage interest rates to rise or fall?
Mortgage fees are determined by the complex interactions of macroeconomic and industry factors, such as:
The level and direction of the bond market, especially the 10-year Treasury, brings the current monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, especially as it relates to bond purchases and funding across mortgage lenders and loan types.
It is generally difficult to attribut the change to one factor, as any number of these can cause variability simultaneously.
Macroeconomic factors kept the mortgage market relatively low for most of 2021. In particular, the Federal Reserve was buying billions of dollars in bonds in response to economic pressures of the pandemic. This bond purchase policy is a major influence on mortgage rates.
However, starting in November 2021, the Fed began tapering its bond purchases downwards, making significant monthly cuts until it reached net zero in March 2022.
Between that time and July 2023, the Fed actively raised its federal funding rates and fought decades of inflation. The Fed’s funding rate can affect mortgage rates, but it does not do so directly. In fact, Fed funds and mortgage rates could move in the opposite direction.
However, given the historical speed and magnitude of the Fed’s 2022 and 2023 rates, the indirect impact of the Fed fund ratio has had a dramatic impact on mortgage rates over the past two years by acquiring a benchmark rate of 5.25 points over 16 months.
The Fed has maintained its federal funding rate at peak levels for almost 14 months starting in July 2023. However, in September, the central bank announced a top-class cut of 0.50 percentage points, followed by a quarterly cut in November and December.
However, at the fourth meeting of the new year, the Fed chose to maintain stable fees. It is also possible that central banks will not be able to cut their separate interest rates for months. A total of eight pricing meetings are scheduled annually, meaning multiple rate holding announcements will be displayed in 2025.
How to track mortgage fees
The above national and state averages are provided via the Zillow Mortgage API. This assumes a ratio of 80% (i.e., down payment of at least 20%) to applicant credit score ratio (LTV) in the range of 680-739. The resulting rate represents what you expect when a lender receives estimates from a lender based on their eligibility. ©Zillow, Inc., 2025. Use is subject to the Zillow Terms of Use.
