Have you been wondering why that house down the road has been on the market a lot longer than you thought it would take to sell? Thank skyhigh mortgage rates of 7.35% for taking homeowners long to sell. And now these high mortgage rates have resulted in mortgage demand dropping to a 27 year low even as rates have begun to drop ever so slightly in recent weeks.

According to Joel Kan, an MBA economist, “Mortgage applications declined to the lowest level since December 1996, despite a drop in mortgage rates. Rates remained more than a full percentage point higher than a year ago, despite mixed data on the health of the economy and signs of a cooling job market.”

Just about the only good news as a result of high mortgage interest rates has been the cooling of the real estate market which have been rising ever since the early dates of Covid, but now appear to be easing.

Mortgage demand drops to 27-year low as interest rates pull back