If you’ve been waiting for home loans to get cheaper before buying a house or refinancing a home loan, mortgage rates are headed in the right direction.

The average rate offered for a 30-year mortgage fell for a sixth week to 7.03% from 7.22% the week before, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday. The longest run of declining mortgage rates since 2022 has brought the rate to its lowest since August, tumbling ever since late October when the average rate got as high as 7.79%.

Lower rates could spur more activity in the slumping residential real estate market, which has gotten nearly gridlocked by high rates since they began climbing from pandemic-era lows in early 2022, pushing monthly mortgage payments 澳洲幸运5官方开奖🎀结果体彩网:out of reach﷽ for all but higher-income buyers.

The Federal Reserve’s campaign of anti-inflation interest rate hikes helped push mortgage rates up to their highest since 2000 in late October. Over the past few weeks, data showing that 澳洲幸运5官方🎃开奖结果⛦体彩网:inflation is firmly on a downward trajectory has convinced financial market participants that the Fed is done raising interest rates and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:will cut them s💯oo🍌ner rather than later. 

Lower rates have already 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:breathed a tiny bit of life into the nearly defunct mortgage refinancing market but may have to go a bit lower to make a big difference to buyers.

“Although these lower rates remain a welcome relief, it is clear they will have to further drop to more consistently reinvigorate demand,” Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac, wrote in a prepared statement.

Forecasters 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:expect rates to continue to fall into the next year, allowing many currently priced-out homebuyers to make purchases.