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72% of homebuyers pause house searches waiting for lower rates
A Yahoo Finance account of a poll of 1,000 potential buyers found 35% could correctly place the average 30-year mortgage rate, and 45% overshot.
A poll commissioned by Neighbors Bank, a Columbia, Missouri lender focused on first-time buyers, suggests many prospective homeowners may be waiting on mortgage-rate levels that are harder to track than expected. Yahoo Finance reports that the survey of 1,000 potential buyers found 72% had paused their search for lower mortgage rates, while only 35% could identify the average 30-year rate in the right range and 45% overshot it.
The report also points to how long some buyers have been sidelined. Yahoo Finance says millennials logged the longest waits at 14 months, and buyers who delayed already expressed frustration, with 41% saying they regret not acting earlier and 17% saying they would have bought instead if they could rerun 2025.
On the market backdrop, Yahoo Finance cites Freddie Mac and forecast expectations from Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association. The outlet notes the 30-year fixed rate was 2.65% in January 2021, rose to 7.79% by October 2023, then moved to 6.49% as of late February and 6.66% as of Aug. 27, with Fannie Mae forecasting an average around 6.4% through the rest of 2026 and the MBA showing 6.5% in the third and fourth quarters and through 2027.
Even with those expectations, the survey indicates some buyers are ready to move at specific thresholds. Yahoo Finance says 34% of holdouts would buy on the day rates reach their number, but the report also highlights that waiting has not come without tradeoffs as both rates and housing conditions shifted over time.