Mortgage rates hold steady, Freddie Mac says

Mortgage rates remained flat this week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage was unchanged from last week at 6.76%.

The average rate on a 30-year loan was 7.09% a year ago.

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"Mortgage rates stayed flat this week," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. "At this time last year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 30 basis points higher and purchase applications were declining. Today, rates are lower and have remained stable for weeks, sparking continued increases in purchase applications."

The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage dipped to 5.89% from last week's reading of 5.92%. One year ago, the rate on the 15-year fixed note averaged 6.38%.

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Americans have faced an affordability crisis and supply issues in the housing market for years, making it difficult for first-time homebuyers to enter the market.

"America is in a state of gridlock in terms of housing transactions where we’re really, for the last two years, we’ve been hitting 30-year lows," Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales said during a recent "Mornings with Maria" appearance. "That’s largely because of high interest rates. Most American mortgages – in fact, 70% of American mortgages – are below 5%, so prevailing rates are closer to 6.8%, perhaps even going up shortly. Sellers are very reluctant to sell because they’re going to have to refinance at a much higher cost."

There is a supply gap of 3.8 million homes, according to a Realtor.com report released in March.

FOX Business' Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report