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Rates for home loans pressed higher, offering little relief for a housing market stuck in neutral.

In the week ending May 15, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.81%, Freddie Mac announced , up from 6.76% last week . So far this year, the popular product has averaged 6.80%, with the lowest level at 6.62% and the highest at 7.04%.

Those figures don’t include fees or points, and rates in some parts of the country may be higher or lower than the national average.

More: Is it finally a buyer's housing market? What to know about home prices, rate 'lock-in'

Despite relative stability in mortgage rates, early indications suggest that the 2025 spring selling season is fizzling. While home contract signings were strong in March , they were probably weaker in April, when the White House’s tariff announcements shocked markets and consumers.

Jeff Lichtenstein, who owns Echo Fine Properties in South Florida, saw a sharp slowdown in activity at that time, he told USA TODAY in April, and early data from Redfin, the national real estate brokerage, confirms that.

In the four weeks ending May 11, contract signings were at the lowest level on record other than during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, the company said in a report . “Redfin agents in many parts of the country, including Oregon, North Carolina, Texas and Ohio, report that some buyers are backing off because they’re nervous about the future of the U.S. economy,” the report said.

A more widely-followed measure of contract signings, the Pending Home Sales report from the National Association of Realtors, will be released at the end of May.

In Austin, Texas, things are a little more even-keeled right now, said Aaron Farmer, broker of Rudder Realty.

Farmer sees a lot of inventory in what was one of the pandemic era’s highest-flying markets, but also a decent amount of demand. Farmer’s buyer clients, who tend to be moving to a second or third home, aren’t having as much trouble affording higher prices as first-time buyers might be.

Perhaps the most positive sign is that a "six-handle" isn't as scary as it once was. “People aren’t complaining about rates as much as they once were,” Farmer said. “They don’t seem to be as rate-sensitive as they used to be.”

Read next: OK, boomer: Why older Americans have the upper handin the housing market

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mortgage rates rise. How's the housing market's spring selling season?