The Market Did Something This Week. Are You Paying Attention?

Rates closed Friday at 6.53%, the lowest they have been since mid-May. With seller concessions factored in, most buyers right now are landing somewhere in the fives on their actual rate. Not the headline number. The real one.

I know that is not what the news sounds like. PCE inflation printed at a three-year high this week. The housing bill that Congress passed with rare bipartisan support got stalled before it could be signed. The Fed is still signaling it will do whatever it takes to bring prices down. If you have been reading the headlines and deciding to wait, I understand why.

But here is what the headlines did not tell you.

Mortgage applications just had their biggest week since February. Pending home sales are up nearly 5% year over year. Home sales hit a five-month high. Inventory is back to pre-pandemic levels, which means buyers have more to choose from than they have in years. The people who are buying right now are not doing it because conditions are perfect. They are doing it because they looked at their own income, their own savings, their own life, and decided the math worked.

The families who bought this spring are not watching rates anymore. They are planning their Fourth of July in their backyard.

I am not going to tell you that now is the perfect time to buy. I do not know your situation, and perfect timing is mostly a myth anyway. What I will tell you is that next week brings the monthly jobs report, and whatever that number says will move rates. Could go either way. The window that opened this week may or may not still be there on the other side of the holiday.

If you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a sign that things are settling down, this week was probably as close as it gets for a while. The next step is a conversation about your specific numbers, not the national ones.

That is what I am here for.

Whitney