Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist stated in a news release July 23,2025 (national forecast):

Buyers Remain Jittery.


Catching most of the blame for this summer’s sluggish sales: Mortgage rates.

“High mortgage rates are causing home sales to remain stuck at cyclical lows,” Yun says. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been averaging in the mid- to high 6% range over recent weeks.

But if mortgage rates dropped to 6%,?the median-priced home would become affordable for about 5.5 million more households, including 1.6 million renters, a recent NAR analysis found. Yun recently presented the findings at last week’s Real Estate Forecast Summit, while unveiling a members-only Metro Market Statistics Dashboard that gives real estate pros metro-level data on housing affordability, economic trends, home price trends and more.

Economists largely predict that the Federal Reserve will do a series of rate cuts this year, which Yun is hopeful will help bring mortgage rates down—and then jump-start home sales.

“If mortgage rates decrease in the second half of this year, expect home sales to increase across the country due to strong economic growth, healthy inventory and a record-high number of jobs,” Yun says.