Jeff Ostrowski

Friday’s tepid jobs report means mortgage rates might finally be poised to fall. The U.S. economy created few jobs in August, the Labor Department reported, news that could set the stage for both a rate cut by the Federal Reserve and a downturn in mortgage rates.

“Mortgage rates dropped to new 2025 lows today after a weaker-than expected August jobs report pushed the 10-year Treasury yield — the key benchmark for mortgage pricing — to its lowest level since April,” says Rocket's Bill Banfield.

The pandemic ushered in one of the most unbalanced housing markets in recent memory: Sellers called all the shots, and buyers made all the concessions. Now, for the first time in years, homebuyers have regained some leverage — and, in some places, especially formerly hot markets like Texas and Florida, they even have the upper hand.

“There’s still far more homes for sale than there are buyers,” says Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “This summer is a buyer’s market."

Mortgage rates are at their lowest levels of the year, with the average cost of a 30-year mortgage retreating to 6.63 percent as of Aug. 6, according to Bankrate’s national survey of lenders.

Yet, today’s rates still feel high, especially for the many Americans who long for the days of sub-4 percent mortgages. If you’re hoping to score the best possible rate right now, here are some possibilities.

U.S. home prices have been on a roll. Defying the downward pull of an affordability squeeze and elevated mortgage rates, home values keep setting records. In fact, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) just reported 24 consecutive months of year-over-year price increases.

When might this momentum finally reach its limits? Not any time soon, apparently: The median price of existing-home sales rose to $435,300 in June, an all-time record, according to NAR.

Five years beyond the pandemic housing boom, American homeowners appear to be increasingly cautious about re-entering the housing market, according to Bankrate’s 2025 Mortgage Rates Sentiment Survey.

The survey found that about half (51 percent) of U.S. homeowners say they would be uncomfortable with purchasing another home no matter what happens with mortgage rates this year, up 13 percentage points from Bankrate’s 2024 survey.

For decades, mortgage lenders have used a single credit score — the FICO score — to underwrite applications for home loans. But that’s about to change.

Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, announced July 8 that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will begin using a second credit score from a competing company that takes more financial factors into account. “Credit history will no longer just include credit cards and loans,” Pulte wrote on X. “This is HUGE.”

Almost as soon as Bryan Dyke filled out a mortgage application in mid-May, he was inundated with solicitations from lenders. “Within 15 to 20 minutes, I started getting calls,” he says.

Dyke was a victim of an unsavory type of marketing called a trigger lead. His mortgage application “triggered” a flood of text messages and phone calls from lenders, hoping to get his business. And in Dyke’s case, it wasn’t just a few friendly-but-annoying offers. “I probably got 1,000 calls in a month."

Talk about branching out. SouthState Bank grabbed headlines earlier this year when it agreed to a sale-leaseback of 165 of its branches across the Southeast for $467 million, and it’s not alone. A number of mid-sized banks are tapping the capital locked up in their bricks-and-mortar footprints by selling to landlords.

U.S. home prices just keep setting new records, although the pace of growth has been slowing. S&P CoreLogic’s latest Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, released June 24, shows annual home-price growth increased in April by 2.7 percent. That’s down from March’s 3.4 percent, and it continues a trend in recent months of a gradual cooling of appreciation.

Highlights from the conference in New Orleans: Affordability challenges: "It's not the frappuccino," says Orphe Divounguy of Zillow. Millennials can't afford homes because they spend too much at Starbucks, Divounguy says. He offers up this example: If you gave up your $10-a-day frappucino habit, it would take you 240 years to save up for a down payment in San Francisco.

It’s been a long time since anyone has uttered the phrase “buyer’s market.” But times are changing. Home sellers now outnumber home buyers, and some corners of the country clearly are in a buyer’s market.

Redfin reports that there are 1.9 million home sellers with for-sale signs nationally, and that they’re vying for the attention of just 1.5 million homebuyers.

“Marry the house, date the rate” refers to the concept of buying now with an eye on refinancing should rates fall. The advice is aimed at wary buyers who are worried about buying a home while rates are elevated. The plan works if rates fall sharply, or if rates fall a little but you can avoid steep closing costs.

Dreary statistics define the Atlanta office market. Rents are lower than the national average. Vacancy rates are higher than in most markets. Absorption has been negative.

But Chris Eachus, founding partner of office landlord CP Group, is doubling down on office space in the Sun Belt megalopolis. CP Group is in the midst of renovating the former CNN Center and just bought an office complex in Buckhead.

Since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, the regulatory agencies that oversee the U.S. mortgage market have been on the chopping block.

The Trump administration has moved quickly to scale back both the size and the scope of the federal government, including ordering layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Price reductions. Sparsely attended open houses. Homes languishing on the market as the weeks turn to months.

While the U.S. housing market continues to achieve new price records at the national level, some formerly hot corners of the country have experienced slowdowns over the past couple of years. Sun Belt states — which saw an impressive growth spurt during the pandemic — still boast strong job markets and continued population growth, but home prices are cooling.