On the heels of a dismal January existing home sales report, mortgage rates holding steady around 6% for weeks brings brighter news in the form of increased confidence for some home shoppers who’ve been sitting on the sidelines, experts say, although affordability still remains a challenge. The latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), released by…
Applications for home loans remained essentially flat this week, declining slightly along with the refinance share of total mortgage activity, while experts note an uptick in government-backed loan applications is an indicator of ongoing affordability challenges. According to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) report, the Market Composite Index—the measure of mortgage loan activity volume…
Housing market watchers say improving home affordability and inventory levels are short-term positives for home shoppers, but caution that the maintaining the independence of the Federal Reserve and tracking broader economic conditions like consumer confidence and economic uncertainty, will help predict where the housing market is heading in the year ahead. The latest Primary Mortgage…
Forces other than mortgage rates can impact homebuying activity, and this past week was a good example of that, as experts surmised that a big winter storm hitting a large portion of the country likely prevented people from applying for a mortgage. According to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) report, the Market Composite Index—the…
This week saw a decrease in overall home purchase applications but the average mortgage rate held steady at or around three-year lows. The latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), released by Freddie Mac Thursday, shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 6.10%, a slight increase of 1 basis point from last week’s rate average of…
With the spring homebuying season approaching, lower mortgage rates are a welcome development for households looking to buy a home. That’s the sentiment of some industry mortgage watchers as rates have hit recent record lows and applications for home purchases have seen solid increases over the past two weeks. The latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey®…
The last two weeks of mortgage application metrics have shown sizable increases. According to the latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) report, the Market Composite Index—the measure of mortgage loan activity volume—increased 14.1% from one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Jan. 16, following last week’s notable 28.5% increase for the…
Americans from all walks of life are feeling heightened anxiety about their finances — and that could dampen the housing market’s recovery, according to a new survey from Bright MLS. The survey of more than 3,300 adults found that a majority of Americans are worried about money across the board. However, this concern is felt…
Privately owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,246,000, 4.6% below the revised September estimate of 1,306,000 and 7.8% below the October 2024 rate of 1,352,000, according to a Jan. 9 report from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The starts fell to…
Don’t rely on national housing market headlines to understand your local market; that’s the key takeaway from Realtor.com®’s December monthly housing report, which reveals how dramatically individual metros diverged from broader trends throughout 2025. The report introduces a new framework for understanding these local differences: “benchmarkets” versus outliers. Benchmarkets are metros whose inventory and price…
| Newer Posts | Older Posts |