Mortgage Rates This Week – NerdWallet

Mortgage rates weren’t at a total standstill in the week ending April 4, but they didn’t move much. Meanwhile, buyers have more homes to choose from.

• The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.75% APR, up six basis points from the previous week’s average, according to rates provided to NerdWallet by Zillow. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.

• The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6% APR, up four basis points from the previous week’s average.

• The 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 7.71% APR, up seven basis points from the previous week’s average.

Rates have been relatively static for three months. Since the second week of the year, the 30-year mortgage has remained above 6.5% and below 7%. During stable periods such as this, there seldom are easy-to-identify reasons for small up-or-down rate movements.

Judging by home sellers’ behavior, it appears that buyers are waiting for houses to become more affordable, either through lower prices or lower interest rates. And because interest rates aren’t falling, the road to greater affordability is through price reductions. In March, sellers had cut the asking price of 15% of the homes on the market, according to Realtor.com. That’s up from 12.7% of homes a year before.

Sellers still have the upper hand in most places because there aren’t enough homes for sale to meet demand. But the rising number of price reductions shows that buyers have recovered a little bit of negotiating mojo. And sure enough, the shortage of homes for sale is easing: The number of homes on the market grew 23.5% from March 2023 to March 2024, according to Realtor.com.

The rise in inventory means buyers have more homes to choose from. And buyers have more choice because they’re holding back. Fewer people applied for mortgages in the last week of March, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Elevated mortgage rates continued to weigh down on homebuying,” Joel Kan, MBA’s deputy chief economist, said in a news release.

Mortgage rates shouldn’t change much in April, as inflation remains stubbornly elevated. Inflation’s decline is likely to continue its glacial pace in April. Mortgage rates are influenced by the inflation rate, so if they move much in April, they’re more likely to fall than to rise. Either way, the change probably won’t be by much.

Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors all predict that mortgage rates will fall over the next 12 months. But they don’t expect much of a drop from April through June. In Freddie Mac’s weekly rate survey, the 30-year mortgage averaged 6.75% from January through March, and forecasters predict that it will average a tad lower in the second quarter.