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‘The Big Money Show’ panel analyzes the state of the housing market after mortgage rates fell to their lowest level in a year.
Mortgage Rates fell again this week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Wednesday.
Freddie Mac’s latest survey of the primary mortgage market, released Wednesday, showed the benchmark’s average rate. Fixed mortgage over 30 years decreased to 6.18% from last week’s reading of 6.21%.
The average rate for a 30-year loan was 6.85% a year ago.
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Mortgage rates fell to 6.18% this week, according to Freddie Mac. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
“This slight decline reflects a bond market that moved throughout the week — albeit within a narrow range — following a mix of cooling and resilient macroeconomic signals,” said Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel.
Mortgage rates are not directly affected by the Fed’s interest rate decision, but closely track the 10-year Treasury yield. The 10-year yield was hovering around 4.14% on Wednesday afternoon.
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Tuesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis published its first estimate of GDP in the third quarter, which showed that the economy grew at an annualized rate of 4.3% over the three-month period comprising July, August and September. This figure exceeds the expectations of economists surveyed by LSEG, who expected GDP growth of 3.3% in the third quarter.
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And last week the government released the latest inflation and employment figures.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that the the consumer price index increased 0.2% in November compared to the previous month, while it increased to 2.7% on an annual basis. These two figures are lower than the expectations of economists surveyed by LSEG, who forecast a monthly increase of 0.3% and a figure of 3.1% over one year.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers created 64,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate reached 4.6% in November, the highest since September 2021.
Meanwhile, the average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage increased to 5.5% from last week’s reading of 5.47%.
The average rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage increased to 5.5% from 5.47% last week. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Krimmel said inventory is higher than last year in most markets and buyers will enter the new year with a better pricing environment than they experienced in spring 2025.
“If mortgage rates can simply stay within this range – or go slightly lower – buyers are likely to see a notable increase in their purchasing power next year, even amid continued macroeconomic and Fed policy uncertainty,” he said. “It won’t take much improvement from here for 2026 to feel like a step forward after two years of slowdown in the real estate sector.
