Mortgage rates rose back above 7% for the first time since early 2025, up from under 6% before the Iran war began
A buyer of a $300,000 home faced roughly $200 more a month in payments than in February
Economists warned rates were more likely to keep rising than to fall in the months ahead
A homeowner purchasing a $300,000 home in Connecticut will now pay $200 more per month than they would have in February as interest rates and mortgage rates climb back above 7%, spurred by inflation and largely driven by the impacts of President Trump’s Iran War.
Despite Trump’s 2024 claims that he would bring interest rates down, they’re climbing, above 7% for the first time since January 2025 compared to about 6% in winter 2026 before Trump attacked Iran, The Hill reported, using Freddie Mac data.
In September, the Federal Reserve voted to increase rates by a quarter-point.
“Expect 7% as the new normal,” The Hill quoted Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, as saying.
Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel told CBS News that interest rates are “far more likely to go up than down by the end of the year or in the next month or two.”
On February 26, 2026, just before Trump launched attacks on Iran, interest and mortgage rates stood at 5.98%. Following a spring and summer of war, they climbed to 7.03% as of September 24.
Interest rate traders put the odds at about two in three that the Federal Reserve would raise rates again at its October meeting.
