Homeowners and prospective home buyers in the United States have seen some relief: mortgage rates began to ease this week.<\/p>\n
The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.19% for the week ending October 23, down from 6.27% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac, released on Thursday.<\/p>\n
After years of weak market activity, pent-up home buyers may finally be ready to return: rates are now the lowest in more than a year, and housing prices are falling in many cities.<\/p>\n
At the start of 2025, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped 7%, and today it sits roughly a full percentage point lower.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Sam Khater<\/p>\n
Positive signals and expectations<\/p>\n
Because of a government shutdown that halted most economic data, the sharp week-over-week drop in rates stands out as one of the few indicators still being published. Freddie Mac, despite being under federal conservatorship, continues to publish its weekly survey.<\/p>\n
Mortgage rates are falling as markets expect a Federal Reserve rate cut in October as an almost certain expectation, said Kara Ng, senior economist Zillow Home Loans.<\/p>\n
With signs of a moderating pace of economic activity and a worsening labor market, mortgage rates could ease slightly through 2026.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kara Ng<\/p>\n
Although the Fed does not control mortgage rates, its actions can influence them through the yields on 10-year Treasury notes.<\/p>\n
Lower rates and modest home prices could improve affordability for many Americans looking to become homeowners.<\/p>\n
In September, the median sale price was about 1.4% below asking, according to Redfin data released last week. This was the largest September discount since 2019, when pandemic-era demand led to higher housing prices.<\/p>\n
Home buyers are gaining more confidence \u2013 existing-home sales in September rose at the fastest pace in seven months, according to a separate National Association of Realtors report released on Thursday.<\/p>\n
As expected, lower mortgage rates are boosting sales.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Lawrence Yun<\/p>\n
According to experts, lower rates are also supporting growth in home sales, and improved affordability is making the market more attractive to buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homeowners and prospective home buyers in the United States have seen some relief: mortgage rates began to ease…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[62966,72,113,62967,62968,62969,62970,62971,61,60,62972,43,62973,62965,62974],"class_list":["post-101473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-30-year-fixed-mortgage","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-federal-reserve-mortgage-impact","tag-freddie-mac-mortgage-rates","tag-homebuyer-confidence","tag-housing-market-2025","tag-housing-sales-increase","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mortgage-rate-drop","tag-news","tag-us-mortgage-rates","tag-us-mortgage-rates-mortgage-rate-drop-housing-market-2025-homebuyer-confidence-freddie-mac-mortgage-rates-30-year-fixed-mortgage-housing-sales","tag-us-real-estate-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}