Despite recent market news, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s announcement that there will be no rate cuts in the near future due to the strength of the U.S. economy, mortgage rates have continued to rise.
According to HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center, the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans increased to 7.48% from 7.26% the previous week and 6.54% a year ago. The 15-year fixed rate also rose to 6.72% from 6.66% in the previous week.
Despite the increase in mortgage rates, the housing market remains robust with demand for new homes seeing an 8.8% increase from February to March and currently there are 543,000 single-family homes on the market, a 3% increase from last year. One positive note about this is that Mike Simonsen, founder and president of Altos Research has stated that with the rise in mortgage rates there has been an increase in unsold inventory on the market which can benefit buyers as it gives them more options to choose from at potentially lower prices than they would have had to pay if prices were still rising rapidly without any relief from sellers.
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