Volume 246 | October 3, 2025

Guardian Asset Management

Weekly Newsletter

Guardian is committed to keeping you informed with the latest housing, industry, and market news from Washington D.C. and across the nation.

 As your industry partner, our goal is to deliver content that is timely, relevant, and insightful.

‘Help With Mortgage’ Searches Are Highest

Since Housing Market Crash

Google searches for "help with mortgage" have shot up to the highest level since 2009, when Americans were navigating the recession sparked by the bursting of the U.S. housing market bubble. 

This recent rise might come as a surprise only weeks after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time since December this month, in a move that many—including President Donald Trump—were long wishing for to ease the U.S. housing affordability crisis. 

But even though mortgage rates recently fell to their lowest level in months in anticipation of the widely expected Fed’s decision, they are now back on the rise. As of the week ending October 2, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage—the most popular form of home loan in the nation—was 6.34 percent, up 0.04 percentage points from a week earlier and 0.22 percentage points from a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac.

What Mortgage Rates Falling Below 6%

Would Really Mean for Monthly Payments

Mortgage rates hit their all-time low during the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020 through early 2021, and since then, prospective homebuyers have been chasing the dream of the lowest rate possible. 

But ever since the rate hit its peak in October 2023—7.79% in the week of October 26—it’s been a slow climb down. 

The rate currently stands at 6.34%, with the national median-priced home coming in at $425,000. 

Let's say a prospective homebuyer is ready right now to buy that $425,000 home with a 20% down payment. This would leave a loan amount of $340,000 on a standard 30-year fixed mortgage. (We’ll exclude taxes and insurance from the equation.)

Buying that valued house right now, at the 6.34% rate, their monthly payment would be roughly $2,122, leading to a total of $763,776 spent over the life of the loan.

Now, at a 6% interest rate, the monthly payment for this loan would be approximately $2,038, totaling about $733,788 over the full 30 years.

Though a mere 0.34% difference, the borrower would spend nearly $30,000 more over three decades with the higher rate of interest. 

First American: Home Affordability Improved in July

Home affordability improved somewhat in July, as home price growth – and mortgage rates – moderated, according to First American’s Real House Price Index.

Affordability improved in 39 of the top 50 markets, with the strongest gains in markets occurring where inventory increased the most. However, there’s still a long way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels.

“Nationally, affordability as measured by the Real House Price index remains historically high – 74 percent above the pre-pandemic, five-year average – but the trajectory is encouraging,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American, in a statement. “Wage growth continues to boost household incomes, giving buyers more purchasing power, even in a high-price environment.”

Housing Costs Defeat Some Buyers

The excitement of the search – or the slog for some – has turned into defeat for roughly one in six aspiring home owners who have given up over the past five years.

Some 16% folded their tents because they could not find a place that fit their needs or could afford, according to a new Bankrate survey. Notably, nearly three in 10 (28%) of the people who gave up because the price of houses in their areas was the most important issue when deciding whether to purchase a place.

Across generations, Bankrate found that 22% of Millennials ages 29 to 44 are the most likely to have shut down their searches. Some 17% of Gen Xers ages 45 to 60 quit, as did 12% each of Gen Zers ages 18 to 28, and Baby Boomers ages 61 to 79.

The cost of housing in their areas is the most important factor cited across generations, genders and income brackets. Some 28% or more than one in four cited cost as the primary reason they called it quits.

How Appraisal Problems can Derail Your Loan,

and How to Prevent Them

Mortgage brokers have had to weather significant headwinds during 2025, as rates remained elevated most of the year. Now that rates have fallen and stabilized, it allows brokers to turn their focus to other challenges to overcome.

Bradley Niles mortgage broker with Niles Funding Group, has seen things improve in his hometown of Arlington, Texas. While market conditions are improving in the Metroplex, there are some other challenges he is working through.

One piece of advice he told Mortgage Professional America revolves around the timing of the appraisal, especially on VA loans. He said a late appraisal can cause problems at the end of a loan.

How Potential Changes to the GSEs

Could Affect Mortgage Rates

Some government-sponsored enterprise reform models could add three or four figures to monthly payments, but others could exert some limited downward pressure, a Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research report finds.

Estimated mortgage-rate hikes of 0.2% to 0.8% — an additional $500 to $2,000 for the typical homebuyer — could result in certain scenarios, authors Daniel Hornung and Ben Sampson found. Hornung is a SIEPR fellow. Sampson is a PhD student at Stanford University.

The preliminary research models how changes to the GSEs' guarantee fees and mortgage-backed securities market could change home financing costs in a public offering for common shares, a concept the Trump administration officials have been exploring. 

"I think the challenge it illustrates is that it is going to be very hard to come up with a scenario where there is no impact on mortgage rates," Hornung said of the study.

Mortgage rate impacts could play a role in whether or how the reform moves forward because administration officials have been looking to advance a model that does not adversely affect financing costs.