Weekly Housing Headlines

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell for the fourth straight week to 6.87%; applications to purchase newly constructed homes rebounded 19% from December; mortgage applications decreased 6.6% from one week earlier; the total value of the U.S. housing market grew 5.2% year over year; and the U.S. housing market tilted in favor of buyers for the first time this decade.

U.S. mortgage rates hit 2025 low after fourth straight weekly drop
Mortgage Professional America - 2/14/2025
Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.87%, a slight dip from 6.89% the previous week, hitting their lowest point of 2025 and offering a glimmer of hope for homebuyers and refinancers.

January New Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Decreased 6 Percent
Mortgage Bankers Association - 2/20/2025
Applications to purchase newly constructed homes rebounded 19 percent from December, but decreased from a year ago, the first annual decline in two years.

Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey
Mortgage Bankers Association - 2/19/2025
Mortgage applications decreased 6.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 14, 2025.

U.S. Housing Market Gained $2.5 Trillion in Value in 2024
Redfin - 2/20/2025
In percentage terms, the total value of the U.S. housing market grew 5.2% year over year. That was the slowest growth in a calendar year since 2019 and the second-slowest since 2011.

It’s a Buyer’s Market. For Many Homebuyers, It Doesn’t Feel Like It
Redfin - 2/19/2025
The U.S. housing market has tilted in favor of buyers for the first time this decade, with 3.7 months of for-sale supply sitting on the market in January. That’s the most since February 2019 and up from 3.3 months a year ago.

Tariff Fears and Mortgage Rates Hurt Builder Sentiment as Single-Family Home Construction Slows
Realtor.com - 2/19/2025
Starts on single-family units, which account for the vast majority of all homebuilding, dropped 8.4% from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 993,000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Weekly Housing Trends View — Data for Week Ending Feb. 15, 2025
Realtor.com - 2/20/2025
The market continues to move in the same direction since the new year. Prices are falling, new listings and active inventory are increasing and homes are spending more time on the for-sale market than they were in early 2024.

First American Predicts A Longer 'Housing Winter'
National Mortgage Professional - 2/18/2025
Home prices are now about 55% higher compared to pre-pandemic levels (February 2020), according to the First American Data & Analytics Home Price Index for the month of January.

Less Than One-Third of U.S. Home Purchases Were Made With Cash in 2024, a 3-Year Low
Redfin - 2/18/2025
Just under one-third (32.6%) of U.S. home purchases were made in cash in 2024, down from 35.1% the year before and the lowest share since 2021.

Why Is Flood Risk Surpassing Fire Risk in California?
CoreLogic - 2/18/2025
By 2050, more than one million homes in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco with low flood risk will see their flood risk rise higher than their fire risk.