How to Shop for a Low Mortgage Rate Good news, house hunters: Home prices have started to cool. Prices are still rising, but annual home price appreciation slowed from April to June, with June marking the strongest single-month deceleration in home price growth ever, according to Black Knight, a mortgage data analytics firm. SEE MORE Home-Price Growth Set to Slow Down The bad news:Rising mortgage rates are making homeownership less attainable for some buyers. Although mortgage rates have been in a state of flux this year, the 30-year fixed-rate average ballooned from 3.2% in January to 5.3% at the end of July, according to Freddie Mac. Consequently, the national median mortgage payment hit $1,893 in June, a $509 increase since the beginning of the year, says the Mortgage Bankers Association. Inflation, geopolitical tensions and fears of a recession are stoking higher mortgage rates, says Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American Financial Corp., a title, settlement and risk solutions provider based in Santa Ana, Calif. “The Federal Reserve has been reducing its balance sheet and raising its benchmark rate in an effort to tame inflation,” she says. “That has resulted in higher 10-year Treasury yields, which has resulted in higher mortgage rates.” Those rising mortgage rates are pushing some buyers out of the market and leading some others to back out of deals—approximately 60,000 home-purchase agreements nationwide fell through in June, Redfin data found.