Mortgage rates continue to hover at all-time lows, marking the ninth consecutive week that rates have averaged below 3%.

“The tug-of-war between the economic recovery and rising COVID-19 cases has left mortgage rates moving sideways over the last few weeks,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Overall, rates continue to be low, with a window of opportunity for those who did not refinance under 3%. From a homebuyer perspective, purchase application demand is improving, but the major obstacle to higher home sales remains very low inventory for consumers to purchase.”

Additional housing inventories may be on the horizon, however. The National Association of REALTORS® reported this week that more listings arrived on the market in July, a trend that could continue into the fall months. Housing inventories increased 7.3% in July compared to June.

Low mortgage rates likely will remain a strong pull for potential home buyers. A rush to lock in a low rate may continue to propel the housing market. NAR predicts the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to rise, expecting it to average 3.2% from October through December.

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Aug. 26:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.87%, with an average 0.6 point, up slightly from last week’s 2.86% average. A year ago, 30-year rates averaged 2.91%.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.17%, with an average 0.6 point, rising slightly from last week’s 2.16% average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 2.46%.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.42%, with an average 0.2 point, falling slightly from last week’s 2.43% average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 2.91%.

Freddie Mac reports average commitment rates along with average points to better reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining a mortgage.

The housing market took a slight dip in contract signings in July, but that could potentially mark an opening for home buyers who have been shut out by fierce competition over recent months.

The National Association of REALTORS® reported this week that pending home sales dropped by 1.8% in July compared to June, the second consecutive month for declines. Only the West saw contract signings increase last month. But all major regions across the country posted year-over-year declines. Contract signings dropped 8.5% nationwide annually.

“The market may be starting to cool slightly, but at the moment there is not enough supply to match the demand from would-be buyers,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “That said, inventory is slowly increasing, and home shoppers should begin to see more options in the coming months.”

Homes listed for sale are still generating lots of interest from potential home buyers. “But the multiple, frenzied offers—sometimes double-digit bids on one property—have dissipated in most regions,” Yun said.

However, “even in a somewhat calmer market, a number of potential buyers are still choosing to waive appraisals and inspections,” Yun added. More than a quarter—27%—of buyers waived an appraisal and inspection in making an offer on a home recently. Buyers are looking to accelerate the home purchase process by doing so, Yun said.

Apartment construction has been ramping up this year. More than 330,000 new rental units are to arrive on the market in 2021, continuing a four-year high in multifamily construction, according to RentCafe’s latest Apartment Construction Report.

“The pandemic shifts and resurgence of the residential rental market bring new residential supply into focus,” said Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix. “Lack of entry-level housing supply and rising home prices will show the multifamily rental market demand increasing as new renters enter the market and millennials extend their rental commitments.”

For the fourth consecutive year, the Dallas–Fort Worth metro is expected to deliver the most new units. More than 21,000 new units are in the pipeline and are expected to be available on the market there by the end of the year. The New York metro follows in the number two spot, with more than 19,000 new units expected to arrive this year, while Phoenix is third.

Aspiring first-time home buyers may not want to give up on that competitive house hunt: In many markets, they could save money by owning.

Buying a starter home is more affordable than renting in nearly half of the largest U.S. metros, according to a new study released by realtor.com®.

The U.S. median rental price has climbed nearly 10% year over year to $1,607. That is 15.5% higher than the monthly payments for a starter home, the lower-priced tier of homes for sale in a market. Low mortgage rates are helping to offset recent jumps in home prices.

“Rents hit new highs in 40 of the 50 largest U.S. metros this July and grew at an almost double-digit pace—the fastest yearly rate we’ve seen in the last 18 months,” said Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “Sky-high rents and historically low interest rates have made the monthly cost to buy a starter home lower than renting one in nearly half the markets across the U.S.”

Still, first-time buyers will want to weigh the full costs of homeownership. “But if the monthly costs have been holding you back, data suggests it’s worth exploring in many markets,” Hale said. “Although it’s still hard to find entry-level homes, we are seeing more smaller homes coming on the market.”

Many of July’s highest rent gains were in secondary markets where rental demand has quickly climbed during the pandemic. Remote work has allowed workers to leave big cities and work from anywhere. That has also helped keep a lid on monthly starter home costs in some of the largest metros. The costs of starter homes, on average, were 15.5%—or $216—lower than rents in nearly half of the 50 largest U.S. metros, the realtor.com® study said.

In the top 10 metros that favored first-time homebuying over renting in July, monthly starter home payments were, on average, 24.3% lower than rents.

Doug Yearley, CEO of the luxury home builder Toll Brothers, told CNBC that the recent drop in lumber prices is prompting some significant savings on the cost to build a home—but home buyers shouldn’t expect to see those savings. While lumber prices are falling, other material costs to build are surging.

Lumber prices reached a record high of more than $1,700 per thousand board feet in May. On Wednesday, it averaged about $500. Yearley says that has translated to about $40,000 in savings in building a home.

But steel mill product prices increased 10.8% in July following a 6.2% increase in June, the National Association of Home Builders reports. Tariffs on steel imports have been blamed for adding to building costs. Also, prices for gypsum products, which are used for drywall, rose 2.5% in July and are up nearly 16% in 2021. Copper has also been in short supply, builders report.

“The tailwind of lumber coming down is very comforting,” Yearley told CNBC’s Jim Cramer. “It’s going to help us. It’s going to drive some margin. But I think it’s going to offset some of the other cost increases that we’re feeling.”

Yearley says it’s taking longer to build homes with recent supply chain and labor issues. “It took about two weeks longer in our third quarter to deliver a home,” Yearley says. “We expect that to continue for a couple more quarters as we manage through it.”

The median sales price of a new home in July was $390,500, an 18.4% increase compared to a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported this week.

“New residential construction remains strong, but building material pricing and availability are likely to remain significant headwinds,” Charlie Dougherty, an economist at Wells Fargo, told NBC News earlier this month.

In some cases, pricing homes has become problematic for builders as they face constantly rising material costs. Read more: Flooded With New Orders, Builders Limit Sales.

Skyrocketing home prices over the last year may soon hit current homeowners in the form of property taxes. Housing experts are predicting property taxes to climb higher in 2021 than the 4% uptick in 2020.

Many city governments lost revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic and, as reassessments kick in, homeowners may be faced with a soaring bill. Property taxes are expected to increase by about 6.5% in 2021, according to realAppeal, a company that helps homeowners appeal property tax bills.

“Many of our clients who are older and living off of Social Security or pensions are beginning to wonder whether or not they’ll be able to remain in their homes as their property tax bills continue to rise,” Frank DiZenzo, chief revenue officer of realAppeal, told realtor.com®.

Property taxes are collected by local city governments to help pay for services like fire, police, and schools. Jurisdictions follow different timetables of when they reassess home values and update bills. Property taxes are usually calculated as a percentage of a home’s taxable value. When home prices rise, they often do too.

The 2020 housing boom may “take a couple years to fully translate into dramatically higher property tax bills because counties usually reassess property values every few years, often three-year intervals,” Brian Davis of Spark Rental, which provides software for housing providers, told realtor.com®.

About 34 states restrict how much taxes can increase in a single year too, providing some level of protection to homeowners. For example, California limits that assessed home values cannot grow more than 2% in a year until the home is sold—Florida limits growth in primary residences to 3% per year. Forty-six states, as well as Washington, D.C., also offer some sort of homestead exemption, which can lower taxes for homeowners who use the home as a permanent residence.

“In addition to increases in home values and their assessments, we’re seeing many county tax jurisdictions increase their property tax rates as well, to bolster their revenues after suffering from reduced collections from other sources,” DiZenzo told realtor.com®.

Commercial properties may have suffered during the pandemic with abandoned office buildings. Local governments may need to rely more on residential tax collections to make up for that loss.

Property taxes can vary drastically from state to state and city to city. Metro areas in Alaska, Colorado, Washington, Georgia, and California had the highest property tax rises last year. For example, in Anchorage, Alaska, average property taxes increased by $987.65 or 26.2% over one year, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate research firm.

Property taxes tend to be lowest in the South. For example, in Alabama, homeowners pay some of the lowest in the country with an average of $841 a year paid in 2020, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. The highest overall property taxes tend to be in the Northeast, California, Texas, and New Jersey. New Jersey has the highest average property tax bills at $49,196.

Tiny homes—those typically under 600 square feet—are facing increased demand as housing affordability remains a growing issue. While many home buyers have looked to supersize their homes during the pandemic, other buyers are finding homeownership may be more attainable by downsizing into a tiny home.

Eighty-six percent of aspiring first-time home buyers during the pandemic say they would consider buying a tiny house as their first home, mostly due to affordability, efficiency, and eco-friendliness, according to a survey from IPX 1031. Availability is there too: More than 1.4 million homes are listed as “tiny.” Millennials appear to be the most drawn to tiny homes due to their price, the flexibility of location for remote work, and eco-friendliness, according to a new study from Porch.com, a home improvement website.

Study: Tiny Homes Offer Big Insurance Savings

On average, a tiny home costs $52,000—87% cheaper than a regular-sized U.S. home, according to the study. In Massachusetts, tiny homes cost 91% less than a regular home, which is the largest price difference compared to any other state, according to Porch.com’s analysis.

However, nationwide, tiny homes may tend to be cheaper but are 62% more expensive on a per square foot basis when compared to a full-size home, the study finds.

Overall, tiny homes are the cheapest in North Dakota ($28,000). Arkansas, however, has the lowest price per square foot of a tiny home at $109 per square foot, according to Porch.com.

On the other hand, Hawaii has the most expensive tiny homes in the U.S., averaging more than $149,000, or $490 per square foot.

More homes are coming onto the market and as they do, home buyers are eager to snatch them up.

Existing-home sales—completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops—increased 2% in July compared to June, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Monday. Sales are up 1.5% compared to a year ago.

As more homes enter the marketplace, opportunities for prospective buyers continue to increase in regions across the country, said NAR President Charlie Oppler. Housing inventories increased 7.3% in July compared to June, reaching 1.32 million homes for sale.

“We see inventory beginning to tick up, which will lessen the intensity of multiple offers,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Much of the home sales growth is still occurring in the upper-end markets, while the mid- to lower-tier areas aren’t seeing as much growth because there are still too few starter homes available.”

But home prices continue to surge. The median existing-home price for all housing types in July was $359,900, an increase of nearly 18% compared to a year ago.

“Although we shouldn’t expect to see home prices drop in the coming months, there is a chance that they will level off as inventory continues to gradually improve,” Yun said. “In the meantime, some prospective buyers who are priced out are raising the demand for rental homes and thereby pushing up the rental rates.”

Here’s a closer look at additional housing indicators from NAR’s July housing report:

Days on the market: Properties typically remained on the market for 17 days in July, down from 22 days a year ago. Eighty-nine percent of homes sold in July were on the market for less than a month.

First-time buyers: First-time buyers comprised 30% of sales in July, down from 34% in July 2020.

All-cash buyers: All-cash sales accounted for 23% of transactions in July, up from 16% in July 2020. Individual investors or second-home buyers comprise the majority of cash sales. They purchased 15% of homes in July, unchanged from the 15% seen in July 2020.

Regional Breakdown

Here’s how existing-home sales fared across the country in July:

• Northeast: Existing-home sales remained steady in July compared to June, but posted a 12.1% increase from July 2020. Median home price: $411,200, up 23.6% from a year ago.
• Midwest: Sales increased 3.8% in July month over month, a 1.4% decline from a year ago. Median home price: $275,300, a 13.1% increase from a year ago.
• South: Sales increased 1.2% in July compared to June, reaching a record high annual rate of 2.63 million. That marks a 1.2% increase from a year ago. Median home price: $305,200, a 14.4% from a year ago.
• West: Sales increased 3.3% in July compared to June and equal to a year earlier. Median home price: $508,300, up 12.5% from July 2020.