Mortgage rates dropped below 7%, a key psychological threshold for would-be buyers and sellers who have been paralyzed by dramatic declines in affordability since the Federal Reserve started to raise interest rates.
The average rate on the standard 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.95%, according to a survey of lenders released Thursday by mortgage-finance giant Freddie Mac. Rates declined last week to just above 7%. They haven’t been below that level since August.
That could help breathe life into the beaten-down housing market, which is the part of the economy where the Fed’s rate hikes have stung Americans the most. Mortgage rates aren’t directly tied to those moves but tend to loosely follow the 10-year Treasury yield.
Source: wsj.com