For the ninth consecutive week, mortgage rates stayed below 2.9%. But even with historically low mortgage rates, home buying may be following a more typical seasonal pattern of cooling off, Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting for the National Association of REALTORS®, writes on the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog.

“Buyers and sellers typically do not want to move their family in the middle of the school year, and they usually wait until its end so they have more free time for moving,” she wrote. Sales typically drop by 15% between August and September, she said. “Even with historically low rates, it’s normal to see the market cooling off in the following months,” she added. NAR has forecast existing-home sales to drop by 10% in the last quarter of this year.

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Sept. 9:

*30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.88%, with an average 0.7 point, climbing slightly from last week’s 2.87% average. Last year at this time, they averaged 2.86%.

*15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.19%, with an average 0.6 point, rising slightly from last week’s 2.18% average. A year ago, they averaged 2.37%.

Source: Freddie Mac and “Instant Reaction: Mortgage Rates, September 9, 2021,” National Association of REALTORS® (Sept. 9, 2021)