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Mortgage rates this week
Fixed mortgage rates grew in the week ending April 18, pushing the 30-year rate over 7%, something home buyers haven’t seen since November 2023.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.16% APR, up 22 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 6.43% APR, up 24 basis points from the previous week's average.
The 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 7.78% APR, down eight basis points from the previous week's average.
Rates have shot up to their highest levels in five months, disappointing buyers who may have hoped to see cuts by this point in the year. These growing interest rates are suppressing existing home sales, with sales dropping 4.3% in March, according to the National Association of Realtors’ Existing Home Sales Report. Sales have fallen 3.7% year over year.
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Home sales dropped in the Midwest, South and West but were up in the Northeast for the first time in five months, by 4.2%. Sales declined in all four regions year over year.
All four regions have also seen an increase in home prices. The median sale price was $393,500 in March, up 4.8% from $375,300 last year. This marks nine consecutive months of year-over-year price increases.
One bright spot for borrowers is that we’re finally beginning to see some growth in available inventory. There were 1.11 million available housing units recorded in March, up 4.7% from February and 14.4% from March 2023. The supply of available housing inventory (the average amount of time it would take to sell all the homes in the current market) reached 3.2 months in March, compared to 2.9 months in February and 2.7 months one year ago. The market is typically considered “balanced” — neither a buyer’s nor a seller’s market — when there’s about six months’ worth of supply. While this is still a seller’s market, inventory growth is key for home shoppers to have options that may fit their budget.
If you want a better understanding of what buyers can expect from the market through the rest of the year, NerdWallet’s recent seasonal trends report analyzes six years’ worth of market data and predicts trends for the 2024 homebuying season.
» MORE: Buying a home in 2024? Here's what to expect
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