Lower mortgage rates should bring normalcy to the market

• The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a point Wednesday, and mortgage rates are likely to move in tandem.
• The housing market looks a lot like the situation Katherine Hare and Stephen Boyd are about to encounter.
• Many are hoping for a much healthier market after a few years of boom and bust.

Katherine Hare and her husband, Stephen Boyd, are retirees looking to make a move. The couple has lived in the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, where Boyd grew up, for many years. But now, Hare wants to be closer to her family in the West Hartford area of Connecticut.

With plenty of equity built up in their home, located in a booming local economy, the couple is in a position many Americans would envy: They likely won’t need to take out a mortgage on a new property. The biggest challenge, Hare thinks, will be the long-distance house-hunting.

Still, she’s well aware that the recent decline in borrowing costs will be helpful when the couple goes to sell their own home. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage just touched 6.09%, its lowest level in over 18 months, down sharply from the recent peak of 7.79%.