Last week, mortgage rates dropped a lot. This week, they went up a little, but they were still much lower than they were a year ago. For now, people who want to buy a house are staying away.
Data provided by Freddie Mac FMCC 0.88% on Thursday showed that the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.49% as of August 15.
One basis point is equal to one hundredth of a percentage point. It’s up two basis points from the week before.
The 30-year bond had an average rate of 7.09% a year ago.
It went up from 5.63% last week to 5.66% for a 15-year debt. A year ago, the 15-year was at 6.46%.
When a borrower asks for a mortgage, thousands of applications are sent to Freddie Mac from lenders across the country. This information is used to make Freddie Mac’s weekly report on mortgage rates.
Mortgage News Daily reported that the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.49% as of Thursday morning. According to a poll by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the 30-year rate was 6.54% on August 9.
In general, mortgage rates are much cheaper this month, and the number of homes for sale is also higher. However, buyers are still not interested in buying a home.
When rates go down, monthly rent payments go down too. And because there are more homes for sale in July, more people are lowering their prices. A press statement from Zillow Z 0.51% said that more than 26% of homes in the area saw their prices drop in July.
Redfin RDFN -1.84% is a real estate company. It was also said that there are almost 20% more homes for sale than there were a year ago.
Even so, buyers are still hesitant to jump in because home prices are still at all-time highs and rates may fall even more in the coming weeks.
What Freddie Mac said: “The 30-year fixed rate is pretty much at 6.5% and is likely to go down in the coming months as inflation continues to slow,” said Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac.
He also said, “Lower rates are good news for both buyers and sellers.”
What do they mean? According to Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS, mortgage rates haven’t changed much in the last week. However, they are still the lowest they’ve been in 14 months.
More people are refinancing than ever in the past few weeks, but “for homebuyers, it is about more than just the interest rate,” she said.
Many housing markets have record-high home prices, which means that there are still people who want to buy a home but can’t get a loan at the current rates. “Some people are waiting for rates to go down even more and more inventory to come on the market later this year,” Sturtevant said.
