Mort­gage rates expect­ed to decline this year, pro­vid­ing some relief for con­sumers

Despite broad­er con­cerns about the econ­o­my, con­sumers are start­ing to see mort­gage rates move low­er, a trend experts expect to con­tin­ue this year as the Fed­er­al Reserve begins to loosen mon­e­tary pol­i­cy.
The hous­ing mar­ket has been upend­ed by the Fed dri­ving inter­est rates up to their high­est lev­el since the dot-com bub­ble at the turn of the cen­tu­ry. That has made the cost of tak­ing out a mort­gage and pay­ing for a home much worse. The eco­nom­ic pain has been com­pound­ed by hous­ing prices sky­rock­et­ing dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic due to explo­sive demand, so any decline in mort­gage rates is wel­come news.
Jes­si­ca Lautz, the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Realtors’s deputy chief econ­o­mist and vice pres­i­dent of research, told the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er that the declin­ing mort­gage rates are wel­come news for con­sumers and poten­tial home­buy­ers.
“Our fore­cast does have mor …