WASHINGTON, DC — Many would-be buyers are stepping back from the housing market while they wait for mortgage rates to ease, but a new poll suggests that strategy is leaving a lot of people stranded. In a survey commissioned by Neighbors Bank, 72% of 1,000 potential homebuyers said they had paused their search, and 41% of those holding out said they already regretted the decision.
The same survey found that rate confusion is part of the problem. Only 35% of respondents could correctly place the average 30-year mortgage rate in the right range, while 45% guessed too high. The results point to a market in which many buyers are watching a number they do not track closely, even as home-financing costs remain elevated.
What The Survey Found
Neighbors Bank, a Columbia, Missouri-based lender that says it focuses on first-time buyers and other borrowers often overlooked by the market, surveyed 1,000 prospective buyers. Among them, millennials reported the longest waits, with searches paused for an average of 14 months. The poll also found that 34% of holdouts said they would move forward the day rates reach their target.
The survey’s regret measure was direct. Of the buyers who had delayed, 41% said they wished they had acted sooner because prices or rates worsened while they waited. Another 17% said that if they could redo 2025, they would have bought a house instead. The findings do not measure completed purchases, but they do show how rate expectations are shaping buyer behavior.
Rates Stay Elevated
The poll comes against a backdrop of mortgage rates that have swung sharply over the past few years. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey put the average 30-year fixed mortgage at 2.65% in January 2021. By October 2023, that figure had climbed to 7.79%, before easing to 5.98% in late February of this year.
Rates have since moved back up. Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed at 6.49% on July 9 and 6.66% on Aug. 27. Forecasts from Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association suggest that level may persist for a while: Fannie Mae’s June housing forecast sees the rate averaging 6.4% through the rest of 2026 and 6.3% in 2027, while the MBA projects 6.5% through 2027. U.S. News reported that some analysts expect rates to stay between 6% and 6.5% for the next three years.
What Buyers Can Check
For buyers, the practical takeaway is not a prediction but a snapshot of how people are responding to current financing costs. Many shoppers appear to be waiting for a return to the ultra-low rates that defined the pandemic era, when the 30-year fixed briefly fell to 2.65%. The survey suggests that hope is keeping some households from moving ahead, even as forecasters do not expect a rapid drop.
Anyone tracking the market can compare the latest rate figures with Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, along with Fannie Mae and MBA forecasts released in June. Those numbers help show whether the market is moving closer to or farther from a target rate. The poll itself is limited to prospective buyers, but it offers a clear sign that impatience and regret are now part of the housing conversation.
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