Whatever challenges today’s housing market has, they haven’t deterred home buyers. Buyer demand spiked last summer and hasn’t let up since. In fact, a newly released survey of mortgage lenders found an increasing number of them say they’ve seen buyer demand grow over the past three months. Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist, says low mortgage rates have kept buyers interested. “Purchase mortgage applications have trended slightly lower in recent weeks; however, they remain fairly strong, and higher than the pre-pandemic level, likely because of continued low mortgage rates,” Duncan said. “Our June National Housing Survey released early this week showed that consumer demand remains strong since ‘home purchase on next move’ is at a survey high, despite the challenges of accelerated home price appreciation and insufficient supply.” But while they’ve seen more demand over the past few months, lenders are cautious about the next three. In fact, their expectations for buyer demand in the coming months is relatively flat, if not slightly lower than last quarter. (source)