Posted on 02/26/26
| News Source: WSJ
Mortgage rates fell below 6% this week for the first time in more than three years, welcome news for waves of house hunters heading into the busy spring home-buying season.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.98% this week, the lowest level since September 2022 and a slight decline from last week, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Mortgage rates briefly topped 7% in January last year, but they have fallen steadily over the past several months. Cooling inflation and economic uncertainty have helped bring them down, and the Federal Reserve’s three interest-rate cuts in the second half of 2025 also added to the momentum.
Lenders, real-estate agents and economists say this week’s drop below 6% could mark an important psychological threshold that will likely lure more buyers into the market. It is also expected to spur a jump in refinance applications for homeowners who bought in recent years when rates were higher.
Home shoppers realize that mortgage rates aren’t about to fall below 3% again—as they did during the pandemic-period housing boom—and that between 5% and 6% is the new norm, said Bill Banfield, chief business officer at the mortgage company Rocket.