The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.96% in the week ending 10 August, according to Freddie Mac. That's up sharply from the average rate of 5.22 percent a year ago and more than double the rate that hovered at 2.87 percent two years ago.

The emergence of these rates near 7% coincides with rising inflation figures in July, fuelling fears that the Fed could raise its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September.

That may not be the worst news for homebuyers - who were also hit by rising house prices in the week ending 5 August.

With house prices, mortgage rates and inflation all on the rise, what does this mean for homebuyers and sellers? In our latest edition of "How's the Housing Market This Week?" the latest real estate statistics seem to portend something.

When list prices dropped to $440,000 in July from $443,900 a year ago, homebuyers had reason to be hopeful. In the past two weeks, however, prices have risen again, up 0.7 percent in the week ending August 5 compared to the same week last year.

However, in analysing the latest house price data, Realtor.com® Economic Research Analyst Hannah Jones predicted that "we will not see a new peak in house prices in 2023, beyond the $449,000 record set in June 2022".

So while house prices have certainly started to head north again, they probably won't reach the peak seen in the summer of 2022.

Still, "affordability will likely remain a major challenge for homebuyers," Jones said.

The number of new listings - a measure of how many homes sellers have listed for sale - fell again this week, down 14 percent from a year ago. Many sellers are waiting for interest rates to drop before putting their homes on the market so they can get a better price.

The number of new homes on the market has been falling for the past 57 weeks. However, this free-fall decline doesn't seem to be as extreme as it was before.

The gap is starting to close," Jones said. That said, active inventory, which includes both new homes and older homes that have been languishing on the market, is 9 percent behind year-ago levels."

Compared to the same week last year, this week marks the seventh consecutive week that the number of active homes for sale has fallen, and the gap is widening. This shows that despite high interest rates, rising home prices and other obstacles, there are still people ready, willing and able to buy a home.

Jones said, "However, the continued drag of existing homeowners choosing to stay put (which we measure by new listings) is holding back overall inventory growth." We expect overall inventory to be down 5 percent in 2023 compared to 2022.

However, all is not lost for homebuyers.

New construction offers homebuyers another option, and new home sales have continued to climb from the lows seen at this time last year, Jones noted.

There's also good news for homebuyers: homes stayed on the market for seven more days in the week ending 5 August compared to the same week last year.

This is a positive trend with staying power. For more than a year (55 consecutive weeks), the average home has stayed on the market longer than it did during the same period a year ago.

This is good for buyers: eager sellers may be more willing to accept a lower offer if a home stays on the market longer. It could also indicate that those head-scratching bidding wars that were common a year or two ago may be a thing of the past.

Mirror.

"This could indicate that the market is finding a new normal, with homes staying on the market for a shorter period of time than before the 'pandemic', but longer than was common at the height of the property mania", Jones concluded.