Rejoice, renters!

Financing costs for what one reader aptly described as hopelessly nondescript “people self-storage units” just fell for the first time in two months. Thanks to Scott Bessent (and no thanks to his boss, one “Tariff Man” or “Individual Number One,” if you like), they’re probably going to fall a little more.

US mortgage rates on the MBA’s gauge were 6.86% in Wednesday’s update. That erased last week’s increase, and counted as the first decline since late September.

As the figure reminds you, rates rose 75bps from the local lows hit just after the September FOMC meeting through last week, a move which, all else equal, would’ve cost prospective homeowners tens of thousands in buying power.

And yet, by a lot of accounts — and notwithstanding a weather-related plunge in October new home sales — buyers are determined. To pay $430,000 for a box with a roof on it. “With the growth in for-sale inventory and signs that the economy remains strong, buyers have remained in the market even though rates have increased recently,” MBA VP Joel Kan said Wednesday.

Overall applications activity rose more than 6% over the week, led by purchases and specifically conventionals. The average loan size was nearly $440,000, the highest in weeks.

Also on Wednesday, the NAR said pending home sales managed a gain last month, no small feat considering the meaningful bounce in rates.

October’s 2% gain was set against expectations for a decline, and marked the third consecutive increase.

Recall that contract activity rebounded sharply in September as rates hit multi-year lows ahead of the first Fed cut. The NAR’s gauge touched an all-time low over the summer.

“Home-buying momentum is building after nearly two years of suppressed home sales,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said. “Even with mortgage rates modestly rising despite [Fed cuts], continuous job additions and more housing inventory are bringing more consumers to the market.”

Finally, it’s worth noting that the investor share of the market has stabilized. Every quarter, Redfin searches county-level home purchase records across more than three-dozen US metros to produce the data illustrated below. An “investor” is defined as “any institution or business that purchases residential real estate.” So this isn’t just private equity. It also counts “mom-and-pop investors,” as Redfin puts it.

As you can see, things have leveled off after what Dana Anderson described as “a rollercoaster ride.”

Investors “bought up homes at a frenzied pace in 2021 and the beginning of 2022, then quickly backed off when the housing market slowed as mortgage rates rose,” Redfin’s senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari remarked, in an editorial accompanying the new figures, released last week and updated on Tuesday.

“Now there’s a middle ground,” Bokhari went on. “It’s less appealing to buy homes to flip or rent out than it was at the start of the pandemic [b]ut it’s more appealing than it was last year.”

In Q3, investors accounted for around 16% of purchases. At the highs, investors bought more than one out of every five homes sold in the US.