Mortgage rates rise for second-straight week. Is the spring selling season sunk?

Andrea Riquier, USA TODAY

Thu, May 15, 2025, 10:42 AM 2 min read

Rates for location loans pressed higher, offering small alleviation for a lodging marketplace stuck successful neutral.

In the week ending May 15, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.81%, Freddie Mac announced, up from 6.76% last week. So acold this year, the fashionable merchandise has averaged 6.80%, with the lowest level astatine 6.62% and the highest astatine 7.04%.

Those figures don’t see fees oregon points, and rates successful immoderate parts of the state whitethorn beryllium higher oregon little than the nationalist average.

More: Is it yet a buyer's lodging market? What to cognize astir location prices, complaint 'lock-in'

Despite comparative stableness successful owe rates, aboriginal indications suggest that the 2025 outpouring selling play is fizzling. While home declaration signings were beardown successful March, they were astir apt weaker successful April, erstwhile the White House’s tariff announcements shocked markets and consumers.

Jeff Lichtenstein, who owns Echo Fine Properties successful South Florida, saw a crisp slowdown successful enactment astatine that time, helium told USA TODAY successful April, and aboriginal information from Redfin, the nationalist existent property brokerage, confirms that.

In the 4 weeks ending May 11, declaration signings were astatine the lowest level connected grounds different than during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, the institution said successful a report. “Redfin agents successful galore parts of the country, including Oregon, North Carolina, Texas and Ohio, study that immoderate buyers are backing disconnected due to the fact that they’re tense astir the aboriginal of the U.S. economy,” the study said.

A much widely-followed measurement of declaration signings, the Pending Home Sales study from the National Association of Realtors, volition beryllium released astatine the extremity of May.

In Austin, Texas, things are a small much even-keeled close now, said Aaron Farmer, broker of Rudder Realty.

Farmer sees a batch of inventory successful what was 1 of the pandemic era’s highest-flying markets, but besides a decent magnitude of demand. Farmer’s purchaser clients, who thin to beryllium moving to a 2nd oregon 3rd home, aren’t having arsenic overmuch occupation affording higher prices arsenic first-time buyers mightiness be.

Perhaps the astir affirmative motion is that a "six-handle" isn't arsenic scary arsenic it erstwhile was. “People aren’t complaining astir rates arsenic overmuch arsenic they erstwhile were,” Farmer said. “They don’t look to beryllium arsenic rate-sensitive arsenic they utilized to be.”

Read next: OK, boomer: Why older Americans person the precocious handin the lodging market

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected USA TODAY: Mortgage rates rise. How's the lodging market's outpouring selling season?