Mortgage Rate Updates

It feels as if all anyone can really talk about lately is mortgage rates… where they are, what they’re doing, and where they’re going. Lucky for us, there are tons of experts out there cluing us into the state of the real estate market. Rates are remaining higher than they were this time last year however, they just experienced their fifth straight week of declines.

As shared by our friends over at Realtor.com, “ For the week ending April 13, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.27%, down from 6.28% in the prior week, Freddie Mac announced on Thursday. That’s still substantially higher than a year ago, though, when they averaged 5%.” Reports from the federal government, however, indicate that inflation is curbing. Generally, mortgage rates ebb and flow with the economy. 

What Does This Mean? 

In short, when inflation dips, so do mortgage rates. The Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors even predicts that rates will continue to gradually decline and even dip back below 6% by the end of 2023. 

What these declines, as incrementally slow as they are, spell out for buyers is: savings. Maybe not a lot of savings but each dip in a percentage point is dollars saved by buyers. Affordability is still the biggest concern in today’s market which means that the buyers that are still out there are serious. 

As rates continue to drop, we’ll see more and more potential buyers enter the market. A recent study by U.S. News & World Report shows that: 28% said they will resume home shopping once rates drop below 6%; 30% plan to wait until they go below 5.5%; and an optimistic 26% say they’ll abstain until rates fall below 5%. With the current predictions for 2023, we’ll just have to see how many of those buyers actually get what they’re hoping for.