The housing market is "locked in"

Marketplace

American Public Media

Business, News

4.6 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pending home sales rose in August, boosted by a slight drop in mortgage rates. Overall, though, the market remains sluggish — owners don't want to give up their locked-in low rates and buyers are waiting to see if rates and other costs will cool. Also in this episode: Banks respond to the Fed rate cut, retailers prepare for holiday hiring, and tech companies hope nuclear is the answer to data center energy demand.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Planning for the future and actually putting those plans into motion,
0:05.9	it's pretty tricky when the economy looks foggy.
0:09.0	From American Public Media, this is Marketplace.
0:20.4	In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyrisdal. It's Monday the 29th of September. Good to have you along.
0:27.7	The theme of today's show is stillness. The thing that happens in the economy when it's hard for businesses and consumers to figure out what's happening in the economy.
0:38.3	We'll start with housing.
0:41.3	Now, the housing market has picked up a bit after mortgage rates inched down this summer from a high nearing 7%.
0:48.3	Today, the National Association of Realtors reported a 4% increase in pending home sales in August, with gains in the Midwest, South, and West.
0:58.3	But that is by no means a housing frenzy, because there are some big factors keeping the market in a holding pattern.
1:05.7	Marketplaces Elizabeth Troval has more.
1:07.7	When mortgage rates came down, the excitement in the Twin Cities real estate market was
1:12.6	modest. Patty Joe Fitzpatrick is with Minnesota realtors.
1:17.7	Say, I was able to do a second showing for a buyer recently, which, you know, in the last number of
1:23.3	years, that would have been a total luxury. So her buyers got to see the property a whole two
1:29.4	times before putting in an offer. That was kind of nice. Fitzpatrick says there's a smidge
1:36.3	more inventory out there, thanks to the lower cost of borrowing. But the other costs of owning home
1:42.5	have gone up. So your energy costs, your insurance costs.
1:47.1	The Midwest saw the most gains from lower rates, says Lawrence Yun with the National Association of Realtors.
1:54.2	Americans are very concerned about affordability.
1:57.5	So in markets where homes are affordable, they're more readily able to respond.
2:03.2	The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is now 6.3%, way higher than what Julia Fonseca got when she bought a house.
2:13.2	My rate is 2.125 on a 15-year fixed.
	...

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