Mortgage Rates Hit a One-Month Low. My FSBO Advice
Mortgage Rates Hit a One-Month Low. My FSBO Advice
Good news, with a catch. Freddie Mac reported on Thursday that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 7.24 percent, down from 7.32 percent the week before. That is the second straight week rates have come down, and the lowest level in more than a month. The 15-year fixed rate fell too, to 6.60 percent from 6.68 percent. Freddie Mac's chief economist Sam Khater said the drop modestly boosts purchasing power for buyers. He is right, as far as it goes.
Here is the catch, and you need to hear it plain. A year ago the 30-year rate was 6.17 percent. We are still more than a full point above that. A buyer borrowing today is still paying a lot more each month than a buyer did last autumn, and a tenth of a point here or there does not change that maths. So yes, this week's number helps. No, it does not turn this into an easy market.
Then there is the Federal Reserve. The Fed held its benchmark rate steady on October 28, at 3.75 to 4.00 percent. Nobody serious expected a cut that would rescue mortgage rates overnight, and nobody got one. If you are sitting on a listing waiting for the Fed to bail out your price, you are waiting on the wrong thing. December is the next date people are watching, but a watched date is not a plan.
What this actually does to your buyer
A lower rate trims the monthly payment. That is real money to a buyer working out whether they can afford your asking price, and it is why even small falls bring a few more people off the sidelines. But remember what the Mortgage Bankers Association reported just a day earlier: purchase applications were still 18 percent below a year ago for the week ending October 23, even as applications rose. Buyers are looking. They are not rushing. They will still walk away from a home priced for a market that no longer exists.
That is the gap you have to sell into. Your buyer is doing the payment maths on your house at 7.24 percent, not at the rate they wish they had, and not at the rate their parents had. Price for the payment they face today and you give them a reason to say yes. Price for some hoped-for future rate and you give them a reason to keep scrolling.
My advice: use the rate dip, don't wait on it
First, check your price against what comparable homes actually closed for lately, not what they listed for. Check it against our pricing breakdown before you go live, so you know exactly what you keep and what you can afford to offer. Second, remember that the commission you save by selling it yourself is your negotiating fund. Spending a slice of it to help a buyer's payment, through a rate buydown or closing help, can move a deal that a straight price cut would not, and you can still walk away ahead.
Third, get the listing in front of buyers while rates are heading the right way, even slightly. Momentum matters in this market. A home that has been sitting for weeks with an old price tells buyers a story you do not want told. A fresh listing, priced for today's payment, with sharp photos and a straight description, tells a much better one. Our selling kit walks through getting that listing live without an agent in the middle.
I will take any week rates fall. I just will not build a selling plan on the hope they keep falling. Sell into the market you have, price for the payment your buyer faces, and keep the commission you saved working for you. That is how FSBO sellers win a market like this one.
Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 29 October 2026 and Mortgage Professional America on the Fed's October hold, 29 October 2026. Photo: Pexels.