Falling mortgage rates are getting Southern California house hunters in a slightly better shopping mood.

My trusty spreadsheet combined September sales data for the six-county region from Attom with mortgage rate patterns from Freddie Mac and found it was the busiest September since 2022.

The mild buying burst is clearly rate-driven, as a shaky job market and declining consumer confidence aren’t providing much support for homebuying. Ponder the rate rollercoaster that brought a three-month moving average of 30-year fixed loan rates to 6.55% in September, the lowest since November 2024 and far below the recent high of 7.42% in November 2023.

Do not forget that this rate benchmark sank to 2.73% in January 2021 as the Federal Reserve launched efforts to stabilize a pandemic-wracked ec

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