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Mortgage Rates Finally Drop—but Is It Enough To Revive the Fall Housing Market?
 By Margaret Heidenry
Sep 1, 2023
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After rising for an alarming five weeks straight, mortgage rates have at long last cooled a bit.
For the week ending Aug. 31, rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans averaged 7.18%, according to Freddie Mac. That’s a welcome drop from last week’s 22-year high of 7.23%, but rates are still formidable enough to discourage many homebuyers from shopping—and homeowners from selling.
“Today’s buyers are facing still-high home prices, limited for-sale inventory, and decades-high mortgage rates,” Realtor.com® economist research analyst Hannah Jones says in her analysis. At the same time, “sellers are hesitant to sell as it would mean giving up a lower mortgage rate in exchange for a higher one.&rdq ...

Even though activity in the housing market has slowed from the frenzy that was the ‘unicorn’ years, it’s still a seller’s market because the supply of homes for sale is so low. But what does that really mean for you? And why are conditions today so good if you want to sell your house?

The latest Existing Home Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows housing supply is still astonishingly low. Housing inventory is measured by the number of available homes on the market. It’s also measured by months’ supply, meaning the number of months it would take to sell all those available homes based on current demand. In a balanced market, there’s usually about a six-month supply. Today, we have only about 3 months’ supply of homes at the current sales pace (see graph below): 

As the visual shows, given the current inventory of homes, it’s still . ...

Some Highlights


Looking at monthly home price data from six expert sources shows the worst home price declines are behind us, and they’re rising again nationally.



If you’ve put your plans to move on pause because you were worried about home prices crashing, this rebound is good news.



Let’s connect so you know what’s happening with prices in our area. ...

Some homeowners have been waiting for months to put their house on the market because they don’t think people are buying homes right now. If that’s you, know that even though the housing market has slowed compared to the frenzy of a couple of years ago, it isn’t at a standstill. Contrary to what you may believe, buyers are still active and plenty of homes are selling right now.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), based on the pace of sales right now, just over 4 million homes will sell this year. With some simple math, let’s break down what that really means for you:


4.16 million homes divided by 365 days in a year = 11,397 houses sell each day



11,397 divided by 24 hours in a day = 475 houses sell per hour



475 divided by 60 minutes in an hour = about 8 houses sell each minute


So, on average, about 11,000 homes sell each day in this country.

A r. ...