October 2025

  Mortgage rates in September trended lower as the bond market priced in expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.35%, 24 basis points (bps) lower than August. Falling mortgage rates have already shown an impact on housing activity. New single-family home sales in August jumped 20.5% from the previous month. Full article...

Below is one of several articles you will see in this newsletter pertaining to mortgage rates.  When the Federal Reserve dropped the rate by one quarter percent in September, the long-awaited change set off a series of positive effects on our home sales market.  Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman essentially killed our robust housing market that ran from June/2020 to June/2022 by...

  You may have seen online that new home inventory is at its highest level since the crash. And if you lived through the crash back in 2008, seeing new construction is up again may feel a little scary. But here’s what you need to remember: a lot of what you see online is designed to get clicks.  Full article here: What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Rise in New Home Inventory (512)...

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun explains how today's housing market differs from the 2008 housing market crash.  Full article here: Ask the Economist: How Does the Current Market Compare to the 2008 Housing Market Crash? (512) 853-0110 or robert@AustinTxHomeSales.com If you are unable to open the link/article above, please let me know so I can get it to you another...

  Single-family built-for-rent construction fell back in the second quarter, as a higher cost of financing crowded out development activity. Over the last four quarters, 71,000 such homes began construction, which is a 16% decrease compared to the 85,000 estimated SFBFR starts in the four quarters prior to that period. This is great news as these large institutional investors buying up homes the past 10...