Mortgage
rates
kept
sliding
toward
7%
as


HousingWire’s
Mortgage
Rates
Center
showed
the
average
30-year
fixed
rate
for
conforming
loans
at
7.25%
on
Tuesday,
below
the
rate
of
7.34%

one
week
ago. 

At
the
same
time
one
year
ago,
the
average
30-year
conforming
rate
was
6.8%.
Meanwhile,
the
15-year
conforming
fixed
rate
averaged
6.77%
on
Tuesday,
up
from
6.71%
one
week
earlier.

“We
have
an
excellent
tug-of-war
on
rates
now
because
people
have
wised
up
to
the
fact
that
the

labor
market
isn’t
tight
anymore,
and
the
Fed
doesn’t
seem
like
it
wants
to
get
ahead
of
the
curve
on
a
softer
labor
market,”
HousingWire
lead
analyst
Logan
Mohtashami
said.
“So,
the
bond
market
is
mindful
of
this
as
it
wants
to
avoid
getting
caught
off
guard
if
jobs
week
shows
another
week
of
the
labor
market
getting
softer. 

“For
the
summer,
the
labor
market
data
is
the
biggest
driver
of
where
rates
can
go;
if
we
do
see
more
material
weakness
in
the
labor
data,
rates
can
go
lower;
if
it
firms
up,
rates
can
stay
elevated.”

Between
May
17
and
May
24,
for-sale
inventory
rose
from
578,016
to
594,548,
reaching
its
peak
for
2024.
During
the
same
period,
there
were
72,329
new
listings,
according
to


Altos
Research
data.

“The
mortgage
rate
lockdown
premise
holds
that
very
few
people
will
list
their
homes
when

mortgage
rates
are
this
high,
thus
suppressing
inventory.
But
2024
has
proven
that
theory
wrong,”
Mohtashami
wrote
on

Saturday.
“This
week,
we
saw
inventory
growth
of
16,532.
All
smiles
here
—
last
year,
we
didn’t
have
this
type
of
positive
growth.”

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