Mortgage rates in the US posted the biggest one-week decline since 2008.
The average for a 30-year loan fell to 5.3%, the lowest in a month and down from 5.7% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday.
Buyers are getting a slight reprieve from this year’s massive rise in rates that has started to cool parts of the US housing market. The jump in costs has pushed more buyers out of the real estate hunt, causing inventory to increase. Sellers have started to cut prices in certain areas.
“While the drop provides minor relief to buyers, the housing market will continue to normalize if home-price growth materially slows due to the combination of low housing affordability and an expected economic slowdown,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.
Even as price gains start to decelerate slightly, the market is the least affordable it’s been since the mid-1980s, according to mortgage data provider Black Knight Inc.
At the current 30-year average, a borrower with a $300,000 mortgage would pay roughly $1,665 a month, about $383 more than at the end of last year, when rates hovered around 3.11%.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.