Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com, highlights the most important indicators from the firm’s 2025 Outlook and talks about the pros and cons between buying and renting a property.
mortgage rates Purchase applications fell for the second consecutive week in further signs of pent-up demand amid the housing market’s ongoing affordability crisis.
Freddie Mac’s latest primary mortgage market survey released Thursday showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage Last week’s reading dropped to 6.69% from 6.81% – the lowest since October. A year ago the average rate on a 30-year loan was 7.03%.
A home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC was spotted for sale on July 30. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Many potential buyers and sellers are eager to see if rates will fall further. Currently, nearly 80% of mortgage holders have rates below 5%, according to a Zillow survey earlier this year.
“This week, mortgage rates fell to their lowest level in more than a month,” said Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac. “Despite the modest decline in rates, consumers have clearly responded as purchase demand has improved significantly. The response of potential home buyers to small changes in rates shows that affordability constraints remain.”
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The average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage fell to 5.96% from 6.10% last week. A year ago, the rate on a 15-year fixed note averaged 6.29%.
