Weekly Mortgage Rates Hold Steady as Housing Market Cools

Mortgage rates hit the pause button in the week ending Sept. 5. They have fallen more than a percentage point in the past four months, and many people are waiting for rates to fall even further before hitting the play button.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was unchanged from the previous week and averaged 6.27%. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. Mortgage rates It barely moved because it was a short week and there wasn’t much economic data to move the market. The weekly average is calculated the day before the August employment report is released.

In the first week of May, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage was 7.32% — a little more than a percentage point higher than it was just four months later. The timing is unfortunate: Traditional home buying season A process that lasts from May to August and begins with interest rates above 7%.

Rates at the start of the home buying season were too high for potential buyers who were already struggling to find homes. be able to affordPurchasing activity was weak, even though mortgage rates finally dropped below 7% in June and continued to fall.

How lackluster was the housing market this summer? Compare two existing home sales reports five years apart. In July 2019, homes resold at an annual rate of 5.43 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. In July 2024, the sales rate was 3.95 million — 27% lower.

Because the housing market is glacial Sellers cold feet and buyers are walking slowly. According to Realtor.com’s analysis of August sales, “the housing market has slowed significantly as both buyers and sellers patiently await a lower mortgage rate environment.”

“Sellers are increasingly showing patience and humility in keeping their homes on the market and lowering asking prices if they don’t sell quickly,” the Realtor.com analysis continues. In the meantime, “some potential buyers are likely to sit themselves out until rates drop further.”

Forecasters from Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association expect mortgage rates to be about a half-point lower in the second quarter of 2025. That could be music to the ears of both sellers and buyers during next year’s home-buying season.