{"id":48062,"date":"2026-05-21T04:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=48062"},"modified":"2026-05-22T01:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:25:22","slug":"buyer-what-makes-mortgage-rates-go-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-what-makes-mortgage-rates-go-down\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes Mortgage Rates Go Down?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve probably noticed how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/mortgages\/rates\">mortgage rates<\/a> change all the time, leaving homebuyers scratching their heads. One month they\u2019re \u201clow,\u201d the next they\u2019re creeping up, and it seems like no one can predict them. Between news about the economy, the Fed, and your own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-credit-score-to-buy-a-house\/\">credit score<\/a>, it\u2019s easy to feel lost. But if you\u2019ve ever wondered what drives those numbers, here\u2019s the answer: what makes mortgage rates go down isn\u2019t magic, but rather, a mix of factors you can learn and follow.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing them can help you time your move and maybe save thousands on your loan. In this post, we\u2019ll break down the key elements that influence mortgage rates and show you what to watch for.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"geo-cta widget-cta widget-cta--content     widget-cta--dark widget-cta--dark-blue-gradient\">\n    <div class=\"widget-element--content\">\n        <div class=\"widget-element--content-header\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"homelight logo\" class=\"widget-element--logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ccprototypev5\/images\/logo-small-cta.png\" width=\"106\" height=\"25\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"cta-headline widget--bold\">How Much Is Your Home Worth Now?<\/h3>\n                        <p>Home values have rapidly increased in recent years. How much is your current home worth now? Get a ballpark estimate from HomeLight&#8217;s free Home Value Estimator.<\/p>\n        \n                <div class=\"widget-element--buttons\">\n            <a data-type=\"In Content CTA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/simple-home-value\/quiz?#\/qaas=0\/\" class=\"cta-click-track widget-element--button\">Get Estimate<\/a>\n        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n <div id=\"section--1\" data-toc-header=\"1. Slower economic growth\" data-toc-type=\"head\"><\/div><\/p>\n<h2>1. Slower economic growth<\/h2>\n<p>When the economy slows down, mortgage rates often take a dip too. Slower growth usually means less inflation and lower demand for borrowing, which can prompt lenders to drop rates to get people back in the market. For homebuyers, that\u2019s good news, as you could get a lower rate and save big over time. Sellers benefit too: lower rates can attract more buyers, meaning your home might <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/need-to-sell-my-house-fast\/\">sell faster<\/a> than you expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wondering what makes mortgage rates go down? Discover how the economy, government policy changes, and credit scores affect your rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":48066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192,620,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-buyers","category-buy-house","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Makes Mortgage Rates Go Down?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wondering what makes mortgage rates go down? Discover how the economy, government policy changes, and credit scores affect your rate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-what-makes-mortgage-rates-go-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Makes Mortgage Rates Go Down?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wondering what makes mortgage rates go down? Discover how the economy, government policy changes, and credit scores affect your rate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-what-makes-mortgage-rates-go-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HomeLight Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gohomelight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T11:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-22T08:25:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/what-makes-mortgage-rates-go-down-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Haddad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gohomelight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gohomelight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Haddad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Makes Mortgage Rates Go Down?","description":"Wondering what makes mortgage rates go down? 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Previously, he served as an editor and content producer for World Company, Gannett, and Western News &amp; Info, where he also served as news director and director of internet operations.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.homelight.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/richard-w-haddad"],"url":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/author\/richardhaddad\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}