Mortgage Rates Rise Again, Nearing Affordability Threshold:  Mortgage rates continued inching up this week, nearing a threshold that would bring the average American household to a financial tipping point, warns Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting for the National Association of REALTORS®.  The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to an average of 5.66%, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. A 5.7% mortgage rate would force the typical household to spend over 25% of its annual income on a median-priced home, Evangelou notes on the Economists’ Outlook blog. Most financial experts consider homeowners to be “house burdened” at that level.  However, relief may be on the horizon for buyers. Fannie Mae predicted this week that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage will drop to an average of 4.5% in 2023. Still, economists say home buyers who can afford to purchase now are better off moving forward rather than waiting for lower mortgage rates.

Experts: Buyers Should Shop Around for a Mortgage as Rates Rise:  As mortgage rates surge and remain volatile, it’s becoming increasingly necessary for home buyers to shop around for a loan to find savings. According to Freddie Mac, borrowers potentially could save an average of $1,500 over the life of a loan by gathering one additional rate quote from a lender. And borrowers could save even more by gathering five different quotes from lenders—up to $3,000, Freddie Mac research shows.  Every dollar may help as housing affordability reaches a critical threshold. The typical U.S. household will no longer be able to afford a median-priced home when mortgage rates reach 5.7%.

U.S. household wealth suffers record drop in second quarter:  U.S. household wealth fell by a record $6.1 trillion in the second quarter to its lowest in a year as a bear market in stocks far outweighed further gains in real estate values, a Federal Reserve report showed on Friday.  The latest fall was led by a $7.7 trillion decline in stock market values as equities slid into a bear market in the first half of the year on worries about surging inflation and the Fed’s aggressive response with interest rate increases. The equity market drop outstripped a $1.4 trillion gain in real estate values.

The housing market is finally becoming more buyer-friendly:  More good news for home buyers: A new survey from Realtor.com found that sellers are offering more concessions to lure buyers into signing contracts.  It found that recent sellers were facing more pressure from buyers in the market than those who sold last year.  According to Realtor.com, 92% of home sellers who sold within the last year had accepted some buyer-friendly terms. 41% had accepted some contingencies in the contract.  But those who sold in recent months had seen an uptick in buyers’ requests: According to the survey, the number of buyers asking for repairs based on inspection results had more than doubled in recent months. The number of sellers refusing to make repairs in the last few months had dropped to zero.  About a third of sellers dropped the price because the home didn’t meet appraisal, and another third paid for “some or all” of the buyer’s closing costs; 30% had to be flexible on the ideal timeline for closing, and 29% paid for repairs after the appraisal.