{"id":2037,"date":"2023-04-09T02:12:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-09T02:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/09\/mortgage-rates-just-dropped-again-is-it-enough-to-save-the-spring-housing-market\/"},"modified":"2023-04-09T02:12:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-09T02:12:32","slug":"mortgage-rates-just-dropped-again-is-it-enough-to-save-the-spring-housing-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/09\/mortgage-rates-just-dropped-again-is-it-enough-to-save-the-spring-housing-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortgage Rates Just Dropped Again\u2014Is It Enough To Save the Spring Housing Market?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mortgage rates ticked down again this week, marking its fourth straight week of declines. But is it enough to breathe new life into the spring housing market?<\/p>\n

For the week ending April 6, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan averaged\u00a06.28%, according to Freddie Mac<\/a>. Although that\u2019s much higher than a year ago, when rates were at 4.72%, it\u2019s still at least down a bit from the 20-year high<\/a> they reached near the end of last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to the recent 7% average rate peak, the latest rate saves $140 per month for a homebuyer on a $300,000 loan,\u201d says National Association of Realtors\u00ae Chief Economist Lawrence Yun<\/strong>, who is optimistic that rates will continue this downward trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough week-to-week rate changes can move up and down, the longer-term prospect on rates is for further improvement, with a clear possibility of going under 6% by the year\u2019s end,\u201d adds Yun.<\/p>\n

This reprieve should come as a relief to homebuyers who\u2019ve been sitting on the sidelines wondering whether they should dive into this spring\u2019s steeply priced real estate market. Still, it\u2019s not all good news, by far.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the latest statistics mean for homebuyers and sellers in this week\u2019s installment of our column \u201cHow\u2019s the Housing Market This Week?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A mixed bag\u2019 for homebuyers this spring<\/h2>\n

\u201cThis spring season presents a mixed bag of trends for both homebuyers and sellers,\u201d notes Realtor.com\u00ae economic data manager Sabrina Speianu<\/strong> in her analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For one, listing prices for the week ending April 1 are still higher than last year, although barely so, growing by just 4.4%.<\/p>\n

\u201cHome listing prices are advancing at the slowest pace since June 2020, and could slow further,\u201d says Speianu.<\/p>\n

Realtor.com economists have previously forecasted an outright price decline<\/a> by the summer, and the national median sales price (what buyers and sellers agreed on) has already begun to fall<\/a> for the first time in over a decade.<\/p>\n

Still, with listings hovering at a median asking price of $428,000, \u201cthe final week of March and beginning of April still registered higher list prices than all but the priciest five months of 2022,\u201d points out Speianu.<\/p>\n

The incredible shrinking housing market<\/h2>\n

Another downside for buyers is that the week ending April 1 marked the 39th straight where fewer homeowners listed their homes for sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cLower levels of fresh new home listings continues to constrain home sales, which continue to remain at low historical levels,\u201d Speianu explains.<\/p>\n

While the total number of real estate listings is up by 53% compared with a year earlier, many of these housing options are stale\u2014picked and passed over already. On average, listings lingered 18 days longer than at this time last year, a continuing sign that buyers aren\u2019t impressed by their options. In fact, properties have been idling longer for 35 weeks in a row.<\/p>\n

But this sluggish pace might pick up as more homebuyers get out there and hit some open houses amid rising temperatures and dwindling mortgage rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is expected that time on market will continue to decrease this spring as we head toward the annual best time to sell a home<\/a>\u00a0in mid-April,\u201d Speianu says. \u201cNevertheless, sellers will need to adjust their expectations and pricing to account for the current market conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBuyer demand tends to be sensitive to mortgage rate changes, increasing with each downward tick in rates,\u201d adds Realtor.com economist research analyst Hannah Jones<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cWe can expect to see a similar bump in housing activity as a result of the recent drop in mortgage rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Jones points out, \u201cDespite these pick-ups in demand, by and large, the housing market remains unaffordable for many would-be buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The post Mortgage Rates Just Dropped Again\u2014Is It Enough To Save the Spring Housing Market?<\/a> appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getty Images Mortgage rates ticked down again this week, marking its fourth straight week of declines. But is it enough to breathe new life into the spring housing market? For the week ending April 6, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan averaged\u00a06.28%, according to Freddie Mac. Although that\u2019s much higher than a…Read More→<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billingsrealtybrokers.paradiseinnovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}