Mortgage rates are stuck near 7%. Should I wait to buy or sell?

Short answer: The 30-year fixed rate is 7.22% (Mortgage News Daily, as of Thursday, November 5) — its lowest level since September 22, and still, unmistakably, a 7. The Federal Reserve doesn't meet again until December 9–10, and nothing on the calendar promises a drop. Waiting is a strategy only if the thing you're waiting for shows up. Here's the math on what waiting costs, and what it doesn't.

Where rates actually are

From our daily market update, the Mortgage News Daily National Rate Index as of Thursday, November 5, 2026:

- 30-year fixed: 7.22% — flat two days running, at its lowest since September 22
- 15-year fixed: 6.86%
- 30-year FHA: 6.87% · 30-year VA: 6.89%
- 7/6 ARM: 6.68% · 30-year jumbo: 7.40%

The plain-words trend: rates stepped down last week and have held at the new low. That's not a rally. That's a plateau — and plateaus near 7% are what buyers and sellers have been working around for a long while now.

What waiting actually costs — and what it buys

Run the honest arithmetic. On a $600,000 loan, principal and interest at 7.22% is about $4,081 a month. If rates fell half a point to 6.72%, the same loan is about $3,880 — a real $201 a month. A full point lower, 6.22%, saves about $398 a month. Nobody should wave that off.

But waiting has a second side that rarely makes the graphic. The buyers sitting out right now are not gone — they're queued. In Eastern Middlesex County, homes sold at 101.25% of asking in October, with serious buyers still competing even at these rates. If rates do fall meaningfully, that queue re-enters all at once, and the quieter market a buyer enjoys today is the first thing that disappears. In practice, you tend to get the lower rate or the calmer market — rarely both at once.

And there's an asymmetry worth understanding: a rate can be refinanced later if it drops. A purchase price cannot. The families who bought at 7% two years ago and refinanced on a dip kept the house and shed the rate. The families who waited for the dip paid the later price.

If you're buying while rates sit near 7

- Negotiate where the leverage is. A home that has sat while others moved is a conversation about price, terms, or a seller-funded rate buydown — a buydown can be worth more per month than the same dollars off the price.
- Look at the whole rate table. The 7/6 ARM at 6.68% and the 15-year at 6.86% are real alternatives if your horizon or payment capacity fits them.
- Buy the house you can hold. At these rates, the winning move is a home you can stay in five-plus years — long enough for a refinance window to come to you, instead of needing it to.
- Get the payment, not the headline. Every $10,000 of price is about $68 a month at 7.22%. Shop in payments and the decisions get clearer fast.

If you're selling into a 7% market

Your buyer's payment is the product you're selling. A price that worked when money cost 6% can simply not pencil at 7.22%, and the market will tell you so with silence. The homes moving right now in our towns are priced so the monthly payment still works for a real buyer — then prepared and presented like they mean it. When buyers are payment-sensitive, condition and presentation aren't decoration; they're how a buyer justifies stretching to your number instead of the next house's.

Frequently asked questions

Will rates drop after the Fed's December 9–10 meeting?
Not automatically. The Fed sets short-term rates; mortgage rates follow the bond market, and they've spent long stretches moving independently of Fed cuts. A December cut may come and the 30-year may barely blink. Watch the Mortgage News Daily index, not the headlines.

Should I wait for rates to hit 6%?
Nobody can date that, and it isn't the current trend — the 30-year has been holding a plateau near 7. If a home fits your life and your payment now, waiting trades a certain house for an uncertain rate; if it doesn't fit, no rate makes it fit.

If I buy at 7.22% and rates fall later, am I stuck?
No — that's the one genuinely favorable asymmetry. You can refinance into a lower rate if one appears and you qualify at the time. What you can't redo is the purchase price, which is why the price negotiation matters more than the rate watch.

Thinking about a move while rates sit here? Talk it through with Dan — 617-417-9108 — or Pete — 617-913-2730. No pressure, no obligation. Buyers: ask about a buyer consultation and our Buyer Guide — the payment math for your price range, worked out in plain numbers.

Published by The Pezzano Group | Powered by Rise Signature Homes · Licensed Massachusetts real estate team
Figures: Mortgage News Daily National Rate Index as of November 5, 2026, via the Pezzano Group daily market update; MLS PIN closed sales (Eastern Middlesex sale-to-list 101.25%, October 2026); payment examples are principal-and-interest illustrations on a $600,000 loan — not loan offers or quotes.
This is general information, not financial advice for your situation.