{"id":41545,"date":"2026-02-26T19:48:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=41545"},"modified":"2026-02-26T19:48:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:48:33","slug":"relief-for-us-homeowners-as-mortgage-rates-hit-lowest-since-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=41545","title":{"rendered":"Relief for US homeowners as mortgage rates hit lowest since 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=ac54b2f4-63a7-4387-9ac3-022230ee7f6f&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The benchmark US mortgage rate has dropped below 6 per cent for the first time in more than three years, potentially offering relief to borrowers and likely bolstering Donald Trump\u2019s claim that housing is becoming more affordable under his administration.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year rate averaged 5.98 per cent as of Thursday, bringing it to its lowest level since September 2022, government-backed housing entity Freddie Mac reported.<\/p>\n<p>Housing affordability has become a pressing political issue for the White House in the run-up to November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>During Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9194e1f5-d191-414a-ab9f-e271a32b8b78\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">State of the Union address<\/a> on Tuesday, he pointed to falling mortgage rates and his move to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes as examples of the ways the housing affordability crisis is easing during his term.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/us-interest-rates\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">interest rates<\/a> will solve the [Joe] Biden-created housing problem, at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house, that really feel rich for the first time in their lives,\u201d the president said in his speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want homes for people, not corporations,\u201d he said as he pressured Congress to pass a law banning institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"tbcvtgvf\" class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3Ac97478b7-15bb-4e09-8cfe-ef8749859f41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3Ac97478b7-15bb-4e09-8cfe-ef8749859f41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3Ac97478b7-15bb-4e09-8cfe-ef8749859f41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=3 3x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3Ac97478b7-15bb-4e09-8cfe-ef8749859f41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=4 4x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3Ac97478b7-15bb-4e09-8cfe-ef8749859f41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=5 5x\" width=\"3500\" height=\"2500\"\/><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3A622305b8-95ac-42e4-b486-f25f1fa63f95?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3A622305b8-95ac-42e4-b486-f25f1fa63f95?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3A622305b8-95ac-42e4-b486-f25f1fa63f95?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=490&amp;dpr=3 3x\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>US housing market activity has been weak since the Federal Reserve began lifting borrowing costs in 2022 in an attempt to tame inflation, which had reached historic highs following the Covid-19 pandemic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/mortgages\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Mortgage<\/a> rates hit a 23-year high of about 7.8 per cent in October 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Since his second inauguration, Trump has been putting pressure on the Fed to bring down its benchmark interest rate. Last month, he directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200bn in mortgage-backed securities with the aim of further lowering borrowing costs.<\/p>\n<p>With mortgage rates sliding through 2025, there were some signs of the US housing market stirring late in the year. Single-family housing starts, which account for the majority of homebuilding activity, hit a five-month high in December, while new home sales in November hit their highest since March 2022, when the Fed commenced its policy-tightening cycle.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"3f7c1ce1-af19-40ec-a292-06674d8884ee\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3f7c1ce1-af19-40ec-a292-06674d8884ee\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2048\/1152\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"o-teaser__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ft.com%2Fv3%2Fimage%2Fraw%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%252Fproduction%252F24fb2f6b-7dac-4164-ad4e-577413e1ca51.jpg%3Fsource%3Dnext-article%26fit%3Dscale-down%26quality%3Dhighest%26width%3D700%26dpr%3D1?source=next&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;dpr=2&amp;width=240\" alt=\"Montage image of the Federal Reserve eagle statue and a chart\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Existing home sales, though, fell 8.4 per cent in January, according to the National Association of Realtors.<\/p>\n<p>Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu cautioned that this week\u2019s decline in the 30-year rate \u201cstems from market volatility rather than fundamental economic data\u201d and therefore \u201cthe path forward remains uncertain\u201d. She said, though, that \u201ca lower rate could possibly bring more homeowners who were previously \u2018locked in\u2019 to finally enter back into the market\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Locked-in homeowners are those with lower mortgages than the market rate. They are often less likely to sell their homes until the market rate comes down, which can lead to less available housing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ac54b2f4-63a7-4387-9ac3-022230ee7f6f\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}