By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage edged higher this week to just above its 2025 low.

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The average long-term mortgage rate rose to 6.16%, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. That’s up slightly from 6.15% last week, when the average rate dropped to its lowest level since October 3, 2024. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.93%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, rose this week to 5.46% from 5.44% the previous week. A year ago it averaged 6.14%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The 10-year yield was at 4.17% at midday Thursday.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has been mostly holding steady in recent weeks since Oct. 30 when it dropped to 6.17%, which at the time was its lowest level in more than a year. Mortgage rates began easing in July in anticipation of a series of Fed rate cuts, which began in September and continued last month.

The Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, but when it cuts its short-term rate that can signal lower inflation or slower economic growth ahead, which can drive investors to buy U.S. government bonds. That can help lower yields on long-term U.S. Treasurys, which can result in lower mortgage rates.

All told, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage ended last year nearly a percentage point lower than at the start of 2025, helping boost home shoppers’ purchasing power toward the end of the year. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose on a monthly basis in September, October and November.

Still, even with long-term mortgage rates holding near their 2025 low point, sales in November slowed compared with a year earlier for the first time since May and ended the month on pace to finish the year down from 2024. December existing home sales data are due out next week.

The recent pullback in mortgage rates has been helpful for home shoppers who can afford to buy at current rates. The median U.S. monthly housing payment fell to $2,365 in the four weeks ending January 4, according to Redfin. That’s a 4.7% drop from the same period a year earlier.

While lower mortgage rates can help boost how much homebuyers can afford, the housing market remains out of reach for many aspiring homeowners, after years of soaring home prices and lackluster wage growth. First-time buyers have had it particularly tough, because they don’t have equity from an existing home to put toward a new home purchase.

Uncertainty over the economy and job market are also keeping many would-be buyers on the sidelines.

Economists generally forecast that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will remain slightly above 6% this year.

By JORGE RUEDA

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela is releasing a “significant number” of citizens and foreigners from its prisons in a decision that the head of the country’s legislature described Thursday as a gesture to “seek peace” less than a week after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces to face federal drug-trafficking charges in New York.

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Jorge Rodríguez, brother of acting President Delcy Rodríguez and head of the National Assembly, did not specify who they would be releasing or how many people would be released. But he said the release of prisoners “is happening right now.”

The Penal Forum, a human rights organization in Venezuela, said that as of Dec. 29, 2025, there were 863 people detained in Venezuela “for political reasons.” In a post on X, director of the forum, Alfredo Romero, said the liberations were “good news” in a country that’s been wracked by political turmoil in recent days.

“We will be verifying each release,” Romero wrote. “We already know of some people on their way to freedom, including foreigners.”

The release of opposition figures and critics has been a longtime demand by Venezuela’s opposition and the United States government.

Despite mass detentions following the tumultuous 2024 election, Venezuela’s government denies that there are “political prisoners” and accuse those detained of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s government.

“Consider this a gesture by the Bolivarian government, which is broadly intended to seek peace,” Rodríguez said in an announcement publicized over TV.

Little movement was immediately seen outside one of Venezuela’s most notable prisons, where a number of the detainees are held.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration sought to assert its control over Venezuelan oil, seizing a pair of sanctioned tankers transporting petroleum and announcing plans to relax some sanctions so the U.S. can oversee the sale of Venezuela’s petroleum worldwide.

Both moves reflect the administration’s determination to make good on its effort to control the next steps in Venezuela through its vast oil resources after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged after the capture of Maduro that the U.S. will “run” the country.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A nonprofit formed last year by the St. Paul Downtown Alliance has acquired yet another troubled building from the former portfolio of Madison Equities — the 25-story U.S. Bank Center, which had been scheduled to go to auction later this month.

The office building, located at 101 East Fifth St., was sold by former lender First Interstate Bank of Omaha, which held its distressed mortgage. In announcing the acquisition on Thursday, the St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation did not disclose full financial details except to say in a written statement that the purchase was “fully funded by private investment, and no public funds were involved.”

The Downtown Development Corporation closed on the bank note on Dec. 30.

“U.S. Bank Center is a key asset on Fifth Street, a property that will be critical to bridging the vibrancy of the entertainment district and Lowertown,” said Development Corporation President Dave Higgins, in the statement. “Acquiring this property’s debt gives the SPDDC additional influence on the continuing stabilization of the downtown core.”

The acquisition was praised by new St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who said in the statement that “a thriving downtown and a functional urban core will make our city far more desirable for people to live, work and do business here. … I am confident that the St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation’s acquisition of the U.S. Bank Center mortgage to their growing portfolio will open more doors and possibilities in St. Paul.”

The building, spanning more than 516,000 square feet, includes 25 floors of office and commercial space, as well as a 348-stall parking ramp. The skyway-connected property faces the Green Line light rail corridor’s Central Station and was recently listed as 26% occupied. It fell into foreclosure a year ago, and was initially listed to be up for auction Nov. 10 through Nov. 12.

A listing broker with Colliers International said last month that title work and other issues had repeatedly delayed the sale, which was advertised with a minimum starting bid of $1 million. The minimum bid could yet be lowered, he said at the time, before the scheduled auction on Jan. 12.

In mid-2024, U.S. Bank announced it would not renew its office lease on nine floors at U.S. Bank Center, though it chose to keep a skyway branch open in the building.

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The Downtown Development Corporation, which was formed in early 2025, has been steadily acquiring office buildings, commercial centers and parking ramps downtown for the past three months. In October, it purchased the sprawling Alliance Bank Center. In November, it acquired the Capital City Plaza parking ramp. In December, it bought the Empire Building on Robert Street and the single-story Endicott Arcade annex building adjoining it on 5th Street.

Each structure had been owned in the recent past by Madison Equities, once downtown St. Paul’s most prominent property owner. Following the death of company principal James Crockarell in January 2024, Madison put most of its downtown portfolio up for sale, though that hasn’t prevented many of its buildings from falling into foreclosure and being sold off by major lenders.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jan. 26 marks the official start date of the 2026 tax filing season, when the IRS will begin accepting and processing 2025 tax returns. April 15 is the filing deadline.

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Tax experts, including the IRS’ independent watchdog, have warned that this year’s filing season could be hampered by the loss of tens of thousands of tax collection workers who left the agency through planned layoffs and buyouts spurred by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The IRS will also be responsible for implementing major provisions of Republicans’ tax and spending package signed into law last summer. Several provisions in the law retroactively affect the 2025 tax year, likely leading to more questions from taxpayers and requiring the IRS to update tax forms.

“President Trump is committed to the taxpayers of this country and improving upon the successful tax filing season in 2025,” said acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent in a news release. “I am confident in our ability to deliver results and drive growth for businesses and consumers alike.”

The IRS expects to receive roughly 164 million individual income tax returns this year, which is on par with what it received last year.

The latest National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress published in June states that the IRS workforce has fallen from 102,113 workers at the end of the Biden administration to 75,702. The IRS website does not include the latest employment numbers on the agency’s workforce.

IRS employees involved in last year’s tax season were not allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until after the taxpayer filing deadline of April 15, 2025.

The June National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress warned that the 2026 season could be rocky.

“With the IRS workforce reduced by 26% and significant tax law changes on the horizon, there are risks to next year’s filing season,” said Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers’ rights.