2025 Builders Showcase

killeen daily herald | Sunday, July 27, 2025

B u i l d e r s ’ S h o w ca s e

B u i l d e r s ’ S h o w cas e

Sunday, July 27, 2025 | killeen daily herald

Average long-term U.S. mortgage rate eases to 6.74%

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage eased this week, offering little relief for prospective homebuyers facing recordhigh home prices.

The long-term rate slipped to 6.74% from 6.75% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.78%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased.

The average rate dropped to 5.87% from 5.92% last week. A year ago, it was 6.07%, Freddie Mac said.

Elevated mortgage rates have been weighing on the U.S. housing market, which has been in a sales slump going back to 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes, which sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years

in 2024, have remained sluggish this year and slid last month to the slowest pace since last September. Sales of new singlefamily homes edged up 0.6% last month, but the sales pace for June and May have been the slowest since last October.

While there are more homes on the market than a year ago, rising home prices and stubbornly high mortgage rates have made homeownership financially untenable for many Americans. Elevated mortgage rates are also discouraging many homeowners from selling because they locked in mortgage rates when they were much lower.

“The persistent risk of tariffdriven inflation, combined with a rising U.S. fiscal debt — expected to grow further following the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act — has helped establish a relatively high floor for interest rates, at least for now,” said Jiayi Xu, an economist at Realtor.com.

Mortgage rates are influenced

by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

The main barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4.41% at midday Thursday, down from 4.40% late Wednesday, following the latest signals that the U.S. economy seems to be holding up OK despite all the pressures on it from tariffs and elsewhere.

Yields have moved higher for most of this month as traders bet that the Fed will hold its key short-term interest rate steady at its upcoming meeting next week, despite President Donald Trump demanding that the Fed to lower rates.

A less independent Fed could mean lower short-term rates, which influence the interest consumers pay on credit cards and auto loans, but it could have the opposite effect on the longer-term bond yields that

Jeff Chiu | AP

Homes and properties are shown in San Francisco on July 18.

influence the rates on home loans.

The average rate on a 30year mortgage has remained relatively close to its high so far this year of just above 7%, set in mid-January. The 30-year rate’s low point this year was in early April when it briefly

dipped to 6.62%.

Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% this year. Recent forecasts by Realtor.com and Fannie Mae project the average rate easing to around 6.4% by the end of this year.

B u i l d e r s ’ S h o w ca s e

killeen daily herald | Sunday, July 27, 2025

Killeen metro area ranks high in the number of new homes being built 2024. That was a decrease of 9.2% compared to 2022, when 4,016 homes were authorized.

The number of homes being In 2022, the Killeen area had built in the Killeen metropolia rate of 20.6 housing units tan statistical area continues to authorized per 1,000 housing outpace the national average. units. That year it ranked as In the Killeen metro area, No. 16 among midsize metro there were 18 new housing area and No. 52 among all units authorized for every 1,000 metro areas. existing homes, according The decrease in the number to Construction Coverage, a of homes being built in Killeen construction research organifrom 2022 to 2024 mirrored nazation. tional trends. The number of That was well above the new homes authorized nationnational average, which was ally fell from 11.7 to 10.1 across only 10.1 housing units authothe same period. rized for every 1,000 homes. It Among metro areas in Texas, was also slightly more than the Killeen area ranked as No. the state average, which was 8 out of the 25 places included 17.9 units authorized per 1,000 in the study. Areas placing homes. higher than Killeen included Out of the 371 metro areas the Austin area and the Dallasincluded in the study, the Fort Worth area.

Killeen area ranked No. 53.

Texas as a whole ranked Among midsize metro areas, highly in terms of new housthe Killeen area was No. 18; ing units authorized. The state there were 98 midsize metros was No. 6 out of the 50 in the included in the report.

United States. Idaho was first That rate translated to a among the states and Alaska total of 3,646 new housing placed last when it came to units being authorized in new home construction.

By Joseph Bahr

Killeen Daily Herald

New home construction is seen near Featherline Road in Killeen.

Herald | File

Home construction is seen in Killeen in this Herald file photo.

Herald | FIle

B u i l d e r s ’ S h o w cas e

Sunday, July 27, 2025 | killeen daily herald

Heights housing market continues to lag behind Bell County

By Erin Eskew Herald Correspondent

The housing market in Harker Heights lags behind Bell County, according to data released by the Fort Hood Area Association of Realtors.

The price of homes in Harker Heights has decreased by 3.5% to a median cost of $306,000.

This decrease is mirrored in the price per square foot which has decreased 9.4% to $140 per square foot.

Closed sales are down in Harker Heights by 18.2% from the previous year with only 27 homes sold in May, the data shows.

The median price of homes has gone up by 1.2% in Bell County, for a median price of $286,500 reported in May, according to data from the Fort Hood Area Association of Realtors. Although the price of homes has gone up, the median price per square foot has decreased by 3.2%, for a cost of about $156 per square foot.

Closed sales have increased by 10.3% with 515 homes sold in May. As of the date when the data was compiled, there were 2,406 active listings across the county, which is an increase of 28.9% over the same period in 2024.

Of those listings, 151 were in Harker Heights, which reflects 5.2 months of inventory — up 1.6% over May of 2024.

Inventory has gone up by 1.3% in Bell County, with 5.8 months worth of real estate inventory.

Data shows homes in Bell County stayed on the market for about 79 days, which is a week longer than reported in May of 2024.

Closing time has gone down by two days, with an anticipated 29 days to close.

While the time for closing increased by two days to 31, homes in Harker Heights are on the market for about 49 days, which is nine days less than in May of 2024.

Mike Bartoszek | Herald

A row of houses are seen under construction in the Warriors Legacy subdivision in Harker Heights recently.

B u i l d e r s ’ S h o w ca s e

killeen daily herald | Sunday, July 27, 2025

Housing market slowing in Copperas Cove

By Erin Eskew Herald Correspondent

The Copperas Cove housing market is trailing slightly behind the broader county, with fewer home sales despite a greater dip in home values, according to data released by the Fort Hood Area Association of Realtors.

The median price of homes in Coryell County is reported at $231,500 in May, which is a 7.6 percent decrease over the same period last year. Sales have gone up by 6.3 percent with 85 homes sold in the month of May. In Copperas Cove, the median price of homes dropped 10.3 percent to $221,500, however the data shows there was a 5.4 percent decrease in homes sold this May compared to the previous year, with 53 homes sold in the city.

The 318 homes on the market in Coryell County reflect 4.7 months of inventory, which

is an increase of 12.8 percent in listings, and almost a full month more inventory compared to the same time last year.

Homes in the county stay on the market for an average of 71 days, which is six days less than the same time last year, and closing takes roughly 34 days.

With the average price per square foot just over $2 less in Copperas Cove, there are 195 active listings — an increase of 36.4 percent over the same period in 2024. The 4.3 months of inventory is 1.1 percent higher than last year.

Homes in Copperas Cove are staying on the market for an average of 55 days, with another 30 days to close.

Mike Bartoszek | Herald

The Copperas Cove housing market is trailing slightly behind the broader county, with fewer home sales despite a greater dip in home values.

B u i l d e r s ’ S h o w cas e

Sunday, July 27, 2025 | killeen daily herald