NEW YORK, Oct. 16 -- The monthly bill on a $400,000 mortgage did not rise this week, but it did not fall either, and it now sits about $301 above where it stood a year ago.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average 30-year fixed rate was 7.40 percent, unchanged from last week and up from 6.27 percent a year earlier. That is the highest level since Nov. 16, 2023, when the average was 7.44 percent, and it ends seven consecutive weekly increases. In July, when mortgage rates hit an 11-month high at 6.55 percent, the average sat 85 basis points lower.

Freddie Mac's release offered one sentence of explanation: the average "remained unchanged this week." It did not say why the climb stopped or whether it will resume. The $301 figure is TEH's...