The average ate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $806,500 or less, increased to 6.92% from 6.86% Mortgage rates are now very close to where they were at the same time last year.

These are today's mortgage and refinance rates. Mortgage rates have been elevated recently, and it's hard to say whether they'll still drop this year.

As mortgage rates creep back towards 7 percent, buyers are retreating from the loan market. Purchase applications dropped 5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous period in the week ending May 16,