Following a painful year for the housing market that saw mortgage rates shoot up to just over 8% after years of historically low rates, monthly mortgage payments have finally fallen back down to their lowest level in nearly a year, according to a newly released Redfin report. But it’s still rough, as Las Vegas agent Shay Stein told Redfin for the report: “Two years ago, buyers would have cried about a 6% mortgage rate. Now, they’re happy they’ve dropped down to the mid-6’s.”
The median mortgage payment was $2,361 during the four weeks ending Dec. 31, 2023—down $372, or 14%, from October’s all-time high, Redfin data journalist Dana Anderson wrote. She cited a change in the weekly average mortgage rate, which fell to 6.61% at the end of December from a 23-year high of 7.79% in late October. The falling mortgage rates coincide with concerns over the economy subsiding in the wake of cooling inflation, as seen by falling yields for the 10-year Treasury yield. In short, the cheaper the yield, the less the market is seen to be worrying about inflation in the future, and that’s good for cheaper mortgage rates.
