Mortgage rates creep toward new high of 7.5%

The bond market was a bit calmer on Friday compared to the day before, but mortgage rates continued their steady rise.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 7.49% on Friday, leaving rates a bruising 30 basis points higher than where they started the week, according to Mortgage News Daily.

Rates remain some distance from late 2023's peak around 7.8%, but the latest rise is nonetheless jarring and could easily be enough to chill home sales ahead of the market's typical winter slowdown.

The current climb began in late August. Sitting at 6.75% on Aug. 26, mortgage rates crossed the 7% threshold around Sept. 10 and have continued rising amid a volatile period in global bond markets. The 10-year Treasury yield ( ^TNX ), which mortgage rates closely track, has been rising rapidly in recent weeks amid growing investor concern about oil prices , inflation , and future Federal Reserve rate hikes .

"A 7% handle is as much psychological as mathematical, and it arrives at the point in the season when leverage usually shifts toward buyers," Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith said in a statement on Thursday.

Claire Boston is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance.