Mortgage rates continued their decline, hitting the lowest level since early February 2023.

The average for a 30-year, fixed loan was 6.09%, down from 6.2% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday.

Borrowing costs have fallen significantly in recent weeks in anticipation of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The central bank announced a half-point reduction on Wednesday and signaled more to come to support the economy. Any immediate impact on the housing market, however, should be minimal because expectations of the Fed’s move have long been priced into mortgage rates.

Still, many brokers and housing experts see reason for optimism and are counting on loan costs to fall further over time. That eventually would bring more buyers and sellers into a market that’s been starved for inventory and coming off its worst spring selling season in more than a decade.

High prices and a shortage of desirable listings have continued to sideline buyers. Closed purchases of previously owned homes fell in August to the slowest pace since October, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The median sales price rose 3.1% from a year earlier to $416,700, the highest for any August in the group’s data.    

Autumn is traditionally a slower time for the housing market, when prices ease and listings tend to linger, according to Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com. With mortgage rates already so much lower than they were a few months ago, some house hunters may decide that now is a good time to find a deal before the market gets more crowded.

“As rates start to go lower and lower, it’s going to get more competitive,” Bess Freedman, chief executive officer of brokerage Brown Harris Stevens, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “So if you see something, make a bid, work on it. There’s a lot of opportunity out there.”

At the current 30-year average, the monthly payment on a $600,000 loan would be $3,632. That’s down from $4,081 that borrowers would have paid in early May, when rates reached 7.22%