It’s taken three and a half years, but mortgage rates finally have a “five-handle.”

Borrowing costs for home loans pushed above 6% in September 2022, and have been at least that high – and occasionally in the 7% range – since then. But on Feb. 26, Freddie Mac’s weekly average stood at 5.98% for the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. That's a national average, and some local areas may still have rates above 6%, while others may have enjoyed rates in the 5s for some time.

Overall, however, the national milestone is welcome news for the limping housing market. In 2024, sales of previously owned homes fell to the lowest level since 1995. When the numbers are finally tallied for 2025, they’re likely to have fallen even further.

“This rate, combined with the improving availability of homes for sale, is meaningful and will drive more potential buyers into the market for spring homebuying season,” said Sam Khater, Freddie’s chief economist, in a release.

Lower rates mean buyers can \\"afford more home,\\" said Bhavesh Patel, consumer channel executive at Chase Home Lending. For every 0.25% reduction in rates, a prospective buyer can afford about 2.5% more house, he explained.

\\"This could be a good time for buyers who’ve been waiting on the sidelines to get into the market,\\" Patel said. \\"If a borrower is financially prepared to take on the cost of homeownership, we suggest meeting with a mortgage professional to discuss their options or to lock in today’s low rates while they shop for a home.\\"

While it’s easy to see the impact of lower mortgage rates on buyers, there's been a lot of press in recent years about \\"rate lock,\\" or how current homeowners don't relish the prospect of giving up their ultra-low rates to become sellers.

As of the third quarter of 2025, the most recent data available, nearly half of all homeowners with mortgages had rates between 3% and 5%, according to an analysis from Realtor.com. Another one-fifth still had rates below 3%. For many of those owners, selling a home and having to take out a new loan with rates just above 6% made the trade just not worth it.

More: It's not a seller's housing market anymore. Some sellers don't agree

Rate lock \\"doesn't matter so much as the news would make it seem,\\" said Benjamin Clark, owner of Homebuyer Representation, Inc. in Salt Lake City. Clark has two clients under contract to buy right now, both of whom are selling homes that they bought decades ago. \\"People are moving because it’s the right time to move and they have enough equity that the interest rate doesn’t bother them that much,\\" he told USA TODAY.

Importantly, Clark thinks the housing market overall may have cooled down a bit from the heady highs and lows of the past few years. Anyone who's out house-hunting now has seen rates hold steady in the low 6s for a while, he said, and aren't kicking themselves for timing the market wrong.

\\"You just have a lot more people saying, 'I might be able to make this happen' than two or three years ago,\\" he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mortgage rates fall below 6% with spring selling season on deck