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Mortgage rates aren't budging. Americans are finding ways to buy homes anyhow.

 Mortgage rates aren't budging. Americans are finding ways to buy homes anyhow.




Rates for home loans ticked down fractionally, remaining stuck in a narrow range that isn’t helping – or hurting – the housing market.

In the week ending March 27, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.65%, Freddie Mac announced Thursday. That’s down from 6.67% last week, which was up from 6.65% the prior week.

Those figures don’t include fees or points, and rates in some parts of the country may be higher or lower than the national average.

Even as mortgage rates tread water, Americans are still trying to buy homes. In the most recent week, applications for mortgages to purchase a home, not refinance, were at the highest point in almost two months, according to the weekly tracker from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home contract signings were also 2% higher in February, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

Despite the modest monthly increase, contract signings remain well below normal historical levels,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a release. “A meaningful decline in mortgage rates would help both demand and supply – demand by boosting affordability, and supply by lessening the power of the mortgage rate lock-in effect.”

NAR forecasts mortgage rates will average 6.4% in 2025 – a small decline, but hardly a meaningful one.

It’s a positive for the housing market that many Americans continue to see the value of homeownership. Richard and Jessica Hamm, 34 and 28-year old parents of three in the metro Oklahoma City area, had been renting a house, but in February were able to close on a purchase with the assistance of a local homeownership counseling agency.

It helped that the fierce competition of the previous years had abated, Richard told USA TODAY: the home they bought was the first one they saw. It boasts 1300 square feet, three bedrooms, and two baths. “Of all the houses we were seeing it was our favorite,” he said. “It has a backyard and front yard and a little concrete patio in the back. And a shed in the back to hold my lawn mower.”

The counseling provided by Neighborhood Housing Services also came in handy. The agency helped the family with down payment assistance, but Hamm also appreciated the homeowner prep classes they took, calling them “eye-opening.”

“It’s really a forever house,” Hamm added. “For a lot of people their first home isn’t their forever home. We wanted a home that we could really make ours. We wanted a house that we could call our own.”


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