The 30-year mortgage rate finally broke a five-week climb, easing to 6.37 percent from 6.46 percent. The relief is real, but it looks fragile: the drop came after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire cooled oil and bond-market nerves, and mortgage rates are still well above the sub-6 percent levels seen only six weeks ago.
That leaves the spring homebuying season in a tense holding pattern. The jump in oil prices after the war began fed inflation worries, pushed the 10-year Treasury yield higher, and made home loans more expensive. Now traders are wondering whether the ceasefire holds and whether the next inflation reading, due April 10, keeps the recent dip in rates from evaporating.
Borrowers are already behaving cautiously. The Mortgage Bankers Association said purchase applications for the week ended April 3 were 7 percent below a year earlier, the first year-over-year decline since January 2025, while Redfin said new listings fell 2.6 percent from a year ago. Buyers are still clicking around, though, with Zillow reporting page views for for-sale listings up 32 percent from a year earlier, a sign that demand has not disappeared, only hesitated.
Washington Post reporting adds another layer to the squeeze: affordability and limited supply are pushing first-time buyers older, with the typical age now at 40, up from 30 in 2010. In practice, a short-lived rate dip helps payments at the margin, but it does not solve the bigger problem, which is that many would-be buyers are waiting for both cheaper borrowing and more homes to choose from. They may be waiting a while.
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