"We are starting to see some patterns that show where the U.S. housing market is cooling off and how it's hitting homeowners based on some key metrics. It looks so far—and it's important to stress, so far—to be having more impact in places with the highest housing costs and less impact elsewhere," said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM.

In today’s real estate market, every dollar counts, especially for low- to moderate-income homebuyers. Guild Mortgage’s new product buys down the mortgage interest rate for the first year and only requires a 1% down payment.

“The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 5.00% to 5.25%,” the Fed said in a prepared statement.

According to Mortgage Capital Trading, rate/term refinance volume was down 21.88%, cash-out refinance volume was down 21.77%, and lock activity in total was down 15.87% in total compared to April.

“Our residents deserve opportunities to build their credit from on-time rent payments that give them access to more financial services such as favorable interest rates on auto loans,” said Matt DeGraw, President, Bridge Property Management.

Overall rate lock volumes rose 14% in May from the prior month, but that number is still down 38% year-over-year and 29% compared to pre-pandemic numbers.

“Given the consistency of our survey results, we expect consumers' longstanding and highly favorable attitude toward homeownership as an investment option will continue to persist, even in the face of possible recession,” Fannie Mae authors concluded.

"Middle-income buyers face the largest shortage of homes among all income groups, making it even harder for them to build wealth through homeownership," said Nadia Evangelou, NAR Senior Economist and Director of Real Estate Research.

CoreLogic’s Chief Economist Selma Hepp said, “While homeowners in some areas of the country who bought a property last spring have no equity as a result of price losses, forecasted home price appreciation over the next year should help many borrowers regain some of that lost equity.”

“Consumers also indicated that they don’t expect these affordability constraints to improve in the near future, with significant majorities thinking that both home prices and mortgage rates will either increase or remain the same over the next year,” said Mark Palim, Fannie Mae’s VP and Deputy Chief Economist.