The average U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.71% this week from 6.66% a week earlier, reaching its highest level in more than a year, Freddie Mac reported. The rate increase extends a prolonged housing-market squeeze in which prospective buyers face elevated financing costs and home prices, while owners with pandemic-era mortgages below 3% have little incentive to sell. Home prices increased 1.5% annually in June, up from 1.2% growth in the previous month, according to housing data provider Cotality. Mortgage rates have climbed alongside global government-bond yields, with investors focused on persistent inflation, higher energy costs linked to the Iran war, widening public deficits and financing needs associated with artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The 10-year Treasury closed just above 4.77% on Thursday, compared with 3.96% at the end of February. The Federal Open Market Committee has kept its policy range at 3.50%-3.75% throughout the year, while markets were assigning roughly equal odds to a hold or a quarter-point increase at the next meeting.