Jones Says Refinance Rates Rose to 6.37% on May 7
Refinance rates climbed to 6.37% through Wednesday, May 7, 2026, as escalating Iran war tensions and an uncertain path to peace jolted financial markets. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.3% a week earlier, leaving buyers and refinancers with a higher monthly hurdle in a market that has been moving with each new Middle East development.
Hannah Jones on 6.37%
6.37% is the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage Freddie Mac tracked through Wednesday, up from 6.3% a week earlier. Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, said, "After a brief period of optimism that rates might finally be settling down, this fresh escalation served as a reminder that the path to lower rates runs squarely through the Persian Gulf right now". Her comment ties the rate move directly to the latest shift in war tensions, not to any change in housing demand alone.
Buyer Demand Slips in April
4% is how much mortgage applications for new home purchases fell through Friday compared with a week earlier, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data. Zillow also found that buyer demand dropped in April compared with March levels. For would-be buyers, the combination of a higher mortgage rate and weaker demand suggests the spring market is already cooling at the margin, even before the next labor-market reading lands.
Friday Jobs Report and Treasury Yields
Friday’s jobs report is the next data point likely to steer mortgage rates from here. A weakening labor market would likely send Treasury yields and mortgage rates lower, while a stronger-than-expected jobs report would likely have the opposite effect. Rates have whipsawed with every development in the Middle East in recent days, rising amid signs of escalation between the U.S. and Iran and falling at the prospect of new peace talks, so the labor report now sits alongside war headlines as the main driver of the next move.
