TAMPA, Fla. — The Federal Reserve made its first rate cut of the year.
The impacts of the "quarter-point" cut will hit millions of Americans, affecting their mortgages, credit cards, and car loans.
WATCH: Fed delivers first rate cut of the year, offering relief for buyers, sellers, and borrowers
It also comes as analysts say the job market has stalled.
This week, the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 6.13%, which is the lowest level in months.
"I'm super excited on both ends, because I get to benefit - as a buyer, it's gonna be cheaper for me to get a loan, and as a seller, I'm gonna have more buyers," said Richard Cannyn, a buyer, seller, and home inspector. It's beautiful, I couldn't have asked for anything better."
Cannyn said he has been waiting for the interest rates to drop for more than two years.
"I was the selective buyer, and we were waiting to see rates coming down," said Cannyn. "I really wanted to see rates starting to come down because the difference between 7% and 5% on a loan is like $1000 a month on certain properties, so it made sense to wait."
And he's glad he did. On Wednesday, after nine months of no cuts, the Feds made a quarter-point cut, lowering the rate to 4% to 4.25%.
Anticipating this, Cannyn put his house on the market this month.
"We had three offers within 72 hours we had and they all came in around the same price and a lot of it had to do with the falling interest rates," said Cannyn.
Ken Jones, a realtor in Tampa Bay, said this cut will have a significant impact on the housing market, especially as it relates to your mortgage.
"With these kind of things, you'll see the rates start to dip down when they anticipate the Fed making a change, and that happened last week," said Jones.
However, for a while, the housing market slowed down, with a significant number of houses remaining on the market.
Jones is selling a house that has been on the market for 130 days and said it has dropped in price several times, by thousands of dollars.
"People have wanted to stay in their homes if they had a lower interest rate,and buyers were kind of waiting for the rates to come down," said Jones.
However, the housing market is now cooling even further, with slower sales and more options for buyers, giving them increased negotiating power.
Jones said now is the time to start shopping.
"So with the locked market, if you get in ahead of time, you'll, as a buyer, you'll have your choice of inventory and you can be a little bit more aggressive with your offers," said Jones.
Lower rates won't fix everything, but for some Florida buyers, it might just be the edge they need to finally make a move.
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