Mortgage rates in the US declined for a second-straight week.
(Bloomberg) — Mortgage rates in the US declined for a second-straight week.
The average for a 30-year, fixed loan was 6.35%, down from 6.39% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday.
Home-loan costs have seesawed in a narrow range recently, driven by investors’ shifting perspectives on when the Federal Reserve is likely to wind down its monetary-tightening campaign. A key measure of consumer prices showed signs of cooling in April, bolstering the case for the Fed to pause its interest-rate hikes soon.
Applications for purchase mortgages have climbed, suggesting house hunters are acclimating to rates that are stuck above 6% yet down from the highs reached late last year. Many would-be buyers, however, are struggling to find anything affordable among scarce supplies of listings. Competition for what is available is pushing up prices, even in weaker West Coast markets, such as San Francisco and Seattle.
“This week’s decrease continues a recent sideways trend in mortgage rates, which is a welcome departure from the record increases of last year,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in the statement. “While inflation remains elevated, its rate of growth has moderated and is expected to decelerate over the remainder of 2023. This should bode well for the trajectory of mortgage rates over the long-term.”
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