Mortgage rates didn’t go down again this week, but at least they didn’t go up. Freddie Mac reports the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 6.35%, the same as last week. But overall, conditions appear to be improving for home buyers.
“Mortgage rates remained flat this week as markets await the release of the highly anticipated August jobs report,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Even though rates have come down over the summer, home sales have been lackluster. On the refinance side however, homeowners who bought in recent years are taking advantage of declining mortgage rates in order to lower their monthly payments.”
In fact, the Mortgage Bankers Association (mba) reports mortgage loan application volume increased 1.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week. While there was a small dip in refinance applications, there was a jump in the number of people buying homes.
Purchase applications increased more than 3 percent over the week and are inching closer to last year’s levels, with government purchase applications leading the increase,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s deputy chief economist.
But Kan said the refinance share of applications averaged almost 46% in August, the highest monthly average since March 2022.