Mortgage Rates Update: December 18th, 2025
- Bill Knudson
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
The mortgage market showed continued resilience for the week ending December 18, 2025, as 30-year fixed mortgage rates edged down slightly. The rate decreased by 1 basis point to 6.21 percent. This movement occurred as the 10 Year Treasury rate saw a more pronounced decline of 2 basis points. As an experienced economist, I observe that while both benchmarks are moving lower, the faster drop in Treasury yields resulted in a minor expansion of the market spread.
This divergence means the spread increased by 1 basis point this week. The gap between mortgage rates and the 10 Year Treasury now stands at 209 basis points, which is 41 basis points above the long-term historical average of 168 basis points.
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Key Developments
Key market metrics as of 12/11/2025 are:
The 30 Year Fixed Mortgage Rate is 6.21 percent.
The 10 Year T Note Rate is 4.12 percent.
The Current Spread is 209 basis points.
The Safety Cushion above the historical norm is 41 basis points.
For a $100,000 loan, the monthly payment decreased by 1 dollar to $613 per month.
The fact that the spread remains over 40 basis points higher than historical norms suggests that lenders are still pricing in a significant risk premium despite the overall downward trend in rates.