{"id":474650,"date":"2026-02-17T22:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474650\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:34:07","slug":"mortgage-rates-back-in-the-5-range-for-first-since-2023-buyers-are-responding-locally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474650\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage rates back in the 5% range for first since 2023. Buyers are responding locally"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Mortgage rates have eased into the 5% range for the first time since 2023, and local lenders say buyers in Northeast Florida are taking notice.<\/p>\n

Click here for more Addressing A4dability coverage.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to national data, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is averaging around 5.72% today, with 15-year fixed near 5.32%. Shorter-term and specialty loan rates vary but remain relatively low compared with recent years. <\/p>\n

What lenders are seeing<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big deal,\u201d Jason Kindler, president of First Coast Mortgage Funding said. \u201cIt can save homeowners, you know, hundreds of dollars, and we\u2019re seeing a huge increase in applications recently too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kindler noted that while rates dipped into the low 6 % range toward the end of last year, they hadn\u2019t truly hit the 5s, until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most insane for applications,\u201d Kindler said of January activity, noting his office saw a roughly 60% year-over-year increase in applications. Buyers are recognizing potential savings and acting on them.<\/p>\n

Affordability on the rise<\/p>\n

New data from the Northeast Florida Association of REALTORS\u00ae shows the home affordability index climbed to 92 last month<\/a> \u2014 the first time it hit the 90s since April 2022. The index measures whether a median-income family can afford a median-priced home, with 100 representing exact affordability. <\/p>\n

Kindler says many buyers realize rates likely won\u2019t return to the ultra-low 3% and 4% levels seen earlier in the decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019re looking at it going, okay, maybe now\u2019s the time,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause when there\u2019s an influx of applications, home prices eventually are going to start going back up. So inventory is going to deplete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether rates could keep falling, Kindler joked he doesn\u2019t have a crystal ball then offered his outlook anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this will be the year that we start to decrease. \u2026 Some of the reports have us in the low fives. But if we can get down a little bit, I think that it is going to continue to drive activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falling mortgage rates and improving affordability are motivating more people to explore buying or refinancing, but experts caution that inventory levels and overall housing market conditions still play a major role in how quickly deals get done.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Mortgage rates have eased into the 5% range for the first time since 2023, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[219920,219921,4,450,12471,451,2053,14310,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-474650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-addressing-a4dability","tag-addressing-affordability","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-duval-county","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-jacksonville","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}