Mortgage rates decline for second straight week: Chart of the Day

Yahoo Finance Live anchors break down the chart of the day.

Video transcript

BRIAN CHEUNG: Well, time for our chart of the day, and it's brought to you by the housing sector. Whereas the rip higher in mortgage rates appears to have calmed down, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate looked like it was actually on its way to 6% over the spring, but actually declined for the second week in a row. 5.1% now the 30-year fixed rate. It was actually as high as 5.3%, I believe. That was on May 12.

So, Akiko, it seems like this is an interesting trend. I wonder if that's going to make some more momentum into the housing market. But look, we were talking with, what, Century 21 earlier in the week. They were saying houses are still flying off the shelves.

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, they are, but we're also seeing more and more new listings, some new numbers to point out here. Redfin said they're seeing new listings rose twice as fast in the last month as they did during the same period a year ago. And what you're seeing is, even those rates are declining, in terms of buyers, right, there's certainly a lot of not necessarily a panic, but a feeling that they need to jump in.

And then on the seller side, too, that they don't necessarily want to miss that window. You know, because the overarching story here is still that because rates are going up, whether-- this data points to the opposite, but what I'm saying is just sort of what people are seeing that the rates are going up. They need to get in before this window closes. Interesting to see this data sort of counter with that.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, and in this hot housing market, I would argue that it's actually not necessarily the rates themselves that are telling you much about demand. It is still very much the price of appreciation in the homes themselves, which are still seeing people bid crazy amounts over asking price.

But you do wonder, look, there was a very sharp point-- and a lot of this has to do with the Federal Reserve-- between March and then kind of where we're at now, as rates are starting to come back down, where you wonder if there was some steam being taken out of the housing market. Does that change from 5.3% to 5.1%, incentivize people to get back into the market? I'm not so sure. Some of this might be marginal. But keep in mind, the Fed's going to continue to raise rates, so we will continue to see if maybe these rates go up furthermore.