The average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage continues to fall.
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, revealed on Thursday that the average rate in the last week was 6.95%. That's down from 7.03% in the week prior.
This was the first time since August that the average weekly mortgage rate sat below 7%.
The downward trend is leading to an optimistic outlook in the housing market for 2024.
“Given inflation continues to decelerate and the Federal Reserve Board’s current expectations that they will lower the federal funds target rate next year, we likely will see a gradual thawing of the housing market in the new year," said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater.
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The National Realtors Association is predicting 4.71 million existing home sales in 2024. That would be a 13.5% increase from 2023.
"The demand for housing will recover from falling mortgage rates and rising income," Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Realtors Association said. "In addition, housing inventory is expected to rise by around 30% as more sellers begin to list after delaying selling over the past two years."
The National Realtors Association identified real estate markets with the most pent-up housing demand. Markets like Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington in Texas, and Dayton, Ohio are expected to outperform other metro areas in 2024.
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