{"id":14471,"date":"2025-05-02T06:29:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=14471"},"modified":"2025-05-02T06:29:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:29:36","slug":"weekly-mortgage-rates-drop-giving-home-buyers-a-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=14471","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Mortgage Rates Drop, Giving Home Buyers a Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mortgage rates fell to a three-week low, and with positive trends in home prices and inventory, the market is gradually moving in favor of buyers.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped 13 basis points to 6.87% in the week ending May 1, according to rates provided to SS by Zillow. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How lower rates boost buying power<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Last week, the average <\/span>mortgage rate<\/span> on a 30-year loan was 7% and this week it was 6.87%. The lower rate means buyers can borrow more with the same monthly payment \u2014 and potentially afford a more expensive home. For example, a <\/span>home buyer<\/span> with a budget of $2,600 a month for principal and interest could afford to borrow $5,200 more at this week’s lower rate ($396,000 at 6.87% vs. $390,800 at 7%).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Housing market isn’t as unfriendly to buyers now<\/span><\/h2>\n
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The news on home prices is encouraging. Prices are still rising in most places, but more slowly than a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nationwide, home prices rose 3% in the 12 months ending in March, according to Freddie Mac’s monthly house price index. That’s a sharp slowdown compared to the same period 12 months earlier, when prices rose 6.95%. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Price increases are slowing because 31.6% more houses are on the market compared to a year ago, according to data from Realtor.com. The added inventory gives buyers more options, improving housing market conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Can’t pin down a reason for the decrease<\/span><\/h2>\n
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There’s no easy explanation for this week’s rate decrease.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rates were already falling by Wednesday before the Bureau of Economic Analysis said total economic output had shrunk slightly in the first quarter\u2014 mostly due to a surge in imports ahead of higher tariffs. Because of the timing, you can’t attribute the decline in rates to that report on gross domestic product.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Members of the <\/span>Federal Reserve<\/span> can move the mortgage market with just a few words \u2014 and that may have happened on April 24, when the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Beth Hammack, appeared on CNBC’s <\/span>Squawk Box<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hammack hinted that a Fed rate cut is possible as early as June if inflation subsides. “If we have clear and convincing evidence by June, July, September…” she said, before being interrupted.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the days after the interview, the market’s odds of a June rate cut increased, according to CME FedWatch. That sentiment could have added downward pressure on mortgage rates.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mortgage rates are likely to remain volatile in May. To guard against fluctuations, it may be wise for home buyers to <\/span>lock a rate<\/span> when it makes sense \u2014 ideally in consultation with a loan officer.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mortgage rates fell to a three-week low, and with positive trends in home prices and inventory, the market is gradually moving in favor of buyers. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped 13 basis points to 6.87% in the week ending May 1, according to rates provided to SS by Zillow. A basis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[247,1628,891,1692,26,417,261,62],"class_list":{"0":"post-14471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-boost","9":"tag-buyers","10":"tag-drop","11":"tag-giving","12":"tag-home","13":"tag-mortgage","14":"tag-rates","15":"tag-weekly"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}