Art meets tariffs. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. First, there's been a slight adjustment

down in the cost of home loans, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. Not much, from 6.8% a month ago to about 6.6%. Something to

write home about. Don't think so. Here's Marketplace's Justin Ho.

Mortgage rates have come down, but not that much.

You know, that's not a game changer for the majority of people in the housing market.

Mark Fleming is chief economist with First America. He says the vast majority of homeowners are sitting on mortgages with rates well below where they are right now.

And that means that most of them will still experience the lock-in effect or the financial

penalty if they were to move.

Fleming says anyone who does buy a home is going to do so because of a life event,

like landing a new job.

But job creation has been slowing down over the last few months.

Charlie Doherty is senior economist with Wells Fargo.

You know, we've transitioned from a generally strong labor market to one that's more,

you know, weak. I think that's causing some folks to kind of rethink home purchases.

Meanwhile, housing prices are still out of reach for many people because there aren't many

houses for sale.

Chris Duncan, senior loan officer at LaSalle State Bank in Illinois, says in his market, home

construction has slowed to a crawl.

Any inventory that does become available, properties are selling at extraordinarily high prices.

Duncan says mortgage demand at LaSalle State Bank is slightly higher than it was last year,

but it's still below where it was before the pandemic.

I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.

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