The Federal Reserve voted Sept. 17 to cut the federal funds rate by one quarter of a percentage point. It was a move long anticipated by financial markets, and also by regular folks watching the housing market: Potential home buyers who’ve been sidelined by high mortgage interest rates and newer homeowners hoping to refinance their loans.

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How the Fed’s rate cut impacts mortgage rates

Here’s what the Fed’s latest move could mean for mortgage interest rates, home buyers and refinancers.

Mortgage rates have already dropped

The Fed uses a key short-term borrowing rate to influence the broader economy. Those changes don’t directly alter mortgage interest rates, and in recent cycles, rates have moved ahead of official decisions from the central bankers. Mortgage rates tend to take their cues from bond markets, and in the run-up to September’s meeting, average rates for 30-year, fixed-rate loans hit their lowest levels in nearly a year.

Afterward, mortgage rates rebounded a bit as markets worked through the news that came with the Fed cut. During his post-announcement press conference, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell discussed the tension the current economy has created between the central bankers’ two key goals. The Fed aims to achieve “maximum employment,” and the weakening job market suggests lowering rates to give businesses a boost. But the bankers also want price stability, and an overheated rate of inflation could be cooled by raising interest rates.

By choosing to cut, the Fed governors basically decided that labor’s a more immediate threat. But in the press conference, Powell noted, “There are no risk-free paths now. It’s not incredibly obvious what to do.”

“Where mortgage rates are going to go is really dependent on the data that we get in the weeks to follow,” says Melissa Cohn, a regional vice president at William Raveis Mortgage. “There’s clearly no direction from Powell or from what the Fed has done today that says the rates are just going to march downwards.”

Maybe next year for home buyers

Since the pandemic dramatically altered the housing market, each new year gets touted as the year the housing market will finally normalize. As for 2025 … well, maybe 2026 will be the year. Rates may be lower, but mortgage interest rates aren’t the only thing holding back would-be buyers.

“Even though affordability had been improving a little bit in 2025, what really kept buyers on the sidelines this year was the frozen labor market,” says Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow. It’s not necessarily that people are buying (or not) because of a job change — but economic uncertainty can discourage making a major life decision like buying a home.

The dearth of buyers had listings gathering dust. Divounguy notes that in July, Zillow saw price cuts on 27.4% of listings — the highest percentage since data gathering began in 2018. “Sellers had come back in the spring, but then the buyers weren’t there,” Divounguy explains.

And by August, sellers were feeling the chill, too, dropping the number of new listings. Again, a seemingly weaker economy likely played a role: In a 2024 Zillow survey, 37% of sellers cited getting a new job as a reason for selling. “There was a window there for buyers that could afford to buy,” Divounguy says, but with sellers retreating, “that window, at least for 2025, seems to be closed.”

Confident buyers can certainly still take advantage of the current rate environment — but they should be aware that inventory may be limited, even for fall. Divounguy is hopeful that in 2026, “Fed rate cuts could thaw the labor market,” getting both buyers and sellers back in the game. A major rate-cutting cycle from the Fed would likely usher in lower mortgage rates, too.

The time is now for many refinancers

A substantial subset of current homeowners looking for rate relief are in better luck.

“We’ve seen mortgage rates in the past couple years approach as high as almost 8%,” so relatively new home buyers could be ready to refi, notes Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com. “Even earlier this year there was a period when rates were close to 7%. Now that they’re back under 6.5%, some people who bought as recently as this year may be in a position where refinancing makes sense.” For a refi to be worthwhile, you’d want to cut at least half a percentage point off your current rate.

Hale also points out that if you’re starting over with a new 30-year loan, you’re getting additional upfront savings. The longer term spreads your balance over more payments, bringing the monthly cost down (though at the same time, the total interest paid will be higher because it’s a longer loan). “If you’re refinancing for a cashflow reason and you don’t mind tacking a couple extra years onto the end of your loan, extending the term may not be a bad decision,” she says.

Refinance closing costs, generally 2% to 6% of the amount financed, are a consideration as well. Still, homeowners anxious to break free from a 7%-plus mortgage rate may decide that’s a price they’ll gladly pay.

But should you wait for rates to drop even lower? “We can’t get too greedy,” cautions William Raveis’ Cohn. “We’ve taken a big drop in rates over the course of the past month and we cannot expect it to continue at this pace.”

Hale concurs: “Even the best forecasters are still making an educated projection based on what we know today, and then the world can evolve in very surprising ways.”

Bottom line: If your refinance math looks good and you’re planning to stay in your home, this could be your moment.

Kate Wood writes for NerdWallet. Email: kwood@nerdwallet.com.

The article The Fed Cut Rates. Will It Help the Housing Market? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow will adhere to nuclear arms limits for one more year under the last remaining nuclear pact with the United States that expires in February, and he urged Washington to follow suit.

Putin said that the termination of the 2010 New START would have negative consequences for global stability and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons.

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“To avoid provoking a further strategic arms race and to ensure an acceptable level of predictability and restraint, we believe it is justified to try to maintain the status quo established by the New START Treaty during the current, rather turbulent period,” Putin said in televised remarks. “Therefore, Russia is prepared to keep adhering to the central quantitative limitations of the New START Treaty for one year after Feb. 5, 2026.”

He added that “based on our analysis of the situation, we will subsequently make a decision on maintaining these voluntary self-restraints.”

He emphasized that Russia expected the U.S. to follow its example and also stick to the treaty’s limits.

“We believe this measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner and does not take steps that undermine or disrupt the existing balance of deterrence potentials,” Putin said.

Daryl G. Kimball, the director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, welcomed Putin’s statement on X as “an important and positive move.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he and Putin talked about nuclear weapons during their summit in Alaska last month. Asked to comment in July on a looming expiration of the New START, Trump noted “that is a big problem for the world, when you take off nuclear restrictions.”

Putin instructed Russian agencies to “closely monitor relevant American activities, particularly with regard to the strategic offensive arms arsenal,” with a particular emphasis on plans to “expand the strategic components of the U.S. missile defense system, including preparations for the deployment of interceptors in space.”

“The practical implementation of such destabilizing actions could undermine our efforts to maintain the status quo in the strategic offensive arms sphere,” Putin warned, adding that, in that case, “we will respond accordingly.”

He emphasized that Moscow’s honoring the pact’s limits could “make a significant contribution to creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.,” provided that other efforts are also taken to normalize bilateral relations.

The New START, signed by then U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. Its looming expiration and the lack of dialogue on anchoring a successor deal have worried arms control advocates.

The pact also envisaged sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, but they have been dormant since 2020.

In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in the treaty, saying that Russia couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal.

At the same time, Russia has emphasized that it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether and pledged to respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty and keep notifying the U.S. about test launches of ballistic missiles.

Putin’s statement comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, fueling concerns that fighting could spread beyond Ukraine’s borders as European countries rebuked Russia for what they said were provocations. The incidents have included Russian drones landing on Polish soil and Estonia accusing Russian fighter jets of intruding into its airspace.

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — World leaders begin convening Monday at one of the most volatile moments in the United Nations’ 80-year history, and the challenges they face are as dire as ever if not more so: unyielding wars in Gaza and Ukraine, escalating changes in the U.S. approach to the world, hungry people everywhere and technologies that are advancing faster than the understanding of how to manage them.

The United Nations itself, which emerged from World War II’s rubble on the premise that nations would work together to tackle political, social and financial issues, is in crisis itself. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week: “International cooperation is straining under pressures unseen in our lifetimes.”

Yet the annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will bring presidents, prime ministers and monarchs from about 150 of the 193 U.N. member nations to U.N. headquarters. The secretary-general says it is an opportunity that can’t be missed — even in the most challenging of moments.

“We are gathering in turbulent — even uncharted — waters,” Guterres said. He pointed to, among other specters, “our planet overheating, new technologies racing ahead without guardrails, inequalities widening by the hour.”

They gather for a better world, but can they build it?

Guterres said he will use the more than 150 one-on-one meetings he has with leaders and ministers to urge that they speak to each other, bridge divides, reduce risks and find solutions — to conflicts, to keep the planet from increased warming, to put guardrails on fast-expanding artificial intelligence, and to find funding for lagging U.N. goals for 2030 including ending poverty in all countries and ensuring quality education for every child.

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He said leaders must make progress, not merely engage in “posturing and promises.”

But U.N. watchers say that in a deeply polarized world, with no prospects of ceasefires in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, whether the high-level meeting makes any progress remains a big question mark.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group, said he is confident three topics will dominate high-level week – U.S. President Donald Trump’s first appearance in his second term, the horrific situation in Gaza, and what’s next for the United Nations as it grapples with major funding and staff cuts, mainly due to the cutoff in U.S. payments to its regular and peacekeeping budgets.

Gowan said he expects the nearly two-year war in Gaza to be the central issue, as Israel launches a major offensive in Gaza City forcing thousands to flee and following a report by independent experts commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel rejected the allegation, calling the report “distorted and false.”

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, has stressed that “Palestine is going to be the huge elephant in this session of the General Assembly.”

It will be front and center on Monday at a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on implementing a two-state solution to the nearly eight-decade Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the spotlight will be even brighter because the Trump administration refused to give a U.S. visa to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to speak at that meeting and the General Assembly.

On Friday, the General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution enabling Abbas to speak by video — as it did in 2022 for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following Russia’s invasion. This year Zelenskyy will be attending in person, and the Security Council is expected to meet on Ukraine on Tuesday.

The assembly voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to support a two-state solution and urge Israel to commit to a Palestinian state. Hours before that vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “there will be no Palestinian state.”

More than 145 countries already recognize Palestine as a state, and Mansour told The Associated Press on Sunday that “it’s going to be 10 more” announcing their recognition at Monday afternoon’s meeting. High-level week is also expected to see a Security Council meeting on Gaza, possibly Tuesday afternoon.

Lots of thorny issues are on the docket

The high-level meeting starts Tuesday morning in the vast General Assembly chamber. Trump will speak that day shortly after Guterres’ opening “state of the world” speech.

Gowan said there is “hope” that Trump will come in a positive mood, touting the international accomplishments that the president says merit the Nobel Peace Prize. Also on the docket: Trump’s financial approach to the larger world. “Obviously, most leaders are going to be focusing on what he has to say about tariffs,” Gowan said, but also about Russia and China.

Other speakers to watch are interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, making his debut on the international stage following the ouster of former strongman Bashar Assad in December, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The Iranian leader will be in New York days after the Security Council decided not to permanently lift U.N. sanctions on his country over its escalating nuclear program, but it gave Tehran and key European powers France, Germany and the United Kingdom until midnight Sept. 27 to agree to a delay. That’s when the sanctions will automatically “snapback” unless a deal is reached.

High-level week will also see numerous meetings on tackling climate change; on the more than two-year war in Sudan started by rival military and paramilitary generals that has sparked the world’s worst displacement crisis; on Somalia, which is home to the extremist group Al-Shabab; and on Haiti, where gangs control over 90% of the capital and have expanded into the countryside .

An event on Monday will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference, which adopted a platform to achieve gender equality. The United Nations says that goal is growing more distant and Guterres has said it is 300 years away on the current track.

One of Guterres’ major aims this year: to generate support for his plans to reform the United Nations and make it more responsive to the world as it is in 2025. Because of funding cuts by the U.S. and others, the U.N. announced last week that its regular operating budget for 2026 needs to be cut by 15% to $3,2 billion along with a 19% cut in that budget’s staff positions. — 2,681 posts.

Gowan said he doesn’t see the United States or other countries running away from the United Nations. But he stressed that it is going through “an extraordinarily difficult period” and will have to shrink and change.

“The U.N.’s resonance on peace and security issues is unquestionably not what it was,” he said, “but I think that the organization will continue to muddle through.”

Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than half a century.

By Kate Ruder, KFF Health News

When Judith Miller had routine blood work done in July, she got a phone alert the same day that her lab results were posted online. So, when her doctor messaged her the next day that her overall tests were fine, Miller wrote back to ask about the elevated carbon dioxide and low anion gap listed in the report.

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While the 76-year-old Milwaukee resident waited to hear back, Miller did something patients increasingly do when they can’t reach their health care team. She put her test results into Claude and asked the AI assistant to evaluate the data.

“Claude helped give me a clear understanding of the abnormalities,” Miller said. The generative AI model didn’t report anything alarming, so she wasn’t anxious while waiting to hear back from her doctor, she said.

Patients have unprecedented access to their medical records, often through online patient portals such as MyChart, because federal law requires health organizations to immediately release electronic health information, such as notes on doctor visits and test results. A study published in 2023 found that 96% of patients surveyed want immediate access to their records, even if their provider hasn’t reviewed them.

And many patients are using large language models, or LLMs, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini, to interpret their records. That help comes with some risk, though. Physicians and patient advocates warn that AI chatbots can produce wrong answers and that sensitive medical information might not remain private.

Yet, most adults are cautious about AI and health. Fifty-six percent of those who use or interact with AI are not confident that information provided by AI chatbots is accurate, according to a 2024 KFF poll. KFF is a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.

“LLMs are theoretically very powerful and they can give great advice, but they can also give truly terrible advice depending on how they’re prompted,” said Adam Rodman, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Massachusetts and the chair of a steering group on generative AI at Harvard Medical School.

Justin Honce, a neuroradiologist at UCHealth in Colorado, said it can be very difficult for patients who are not medically trained to know whether AI chatbots make mistakes.

“Ultimately, it’s just the need for caution overall with LLMs. With the latest models, these concerns are continuing to get less and less of an issue but have not been entirely resolved,” Honce said.

Rodman has seen a surge in AI use among his patients in the past six months. In one case, a patient took a screenshot of his hospital lab results on MyChart then uploaded them to ChatGPT to prepare questions ahead of his appointment. Rodman said he welcomes patients’ showing him how they use AI, and that their research creates an opportunity for discussion.

Roughly 1 in 7 adults over 50 use AI to receive health information, according to a recent poll from the University of Michigan, while 1 in 4 adults under age 30 do so, according to the KFF poll.

Using the internet to advocate for better care for oneself isn’t new. Patients have traditionally used websites such as WebMD, PubMed, or Google to search for the latest research and have sought advice from other patients on social media platforms like Facebook or Reddit. But AI chatbots’ ability to generate personalized recommendations or second opinions in seconds is novel.

Liz Salmi, communications and patient initiatives director at OpenNotes, an academic lab at Beth Israel Deaconess that advocates for transparency in health care, had wondered how good AI is at interpretation, specifically for patients.

In a proof-of-concept study published this year, Salmi and colleagues analyzed the accuracy of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini responses to patients’ questions about a clinical note. All three AI models performed well, but how patients framed their questions mattered, Salmi said. For example, telling the AI chatbot to take on the persona of a clinician and asking it one question at a time improved the accuracy of its responses.

Privacy is a concern, Salmi said, so it’s critical to remove personal information like your name or Social Security number from prompts. Data goes directly to tech companies that have developed AI models, Rodman said, adding that he is not aware of any that comply with federal privacy law or consider patient safety. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, warned on a podcast last month about putting personal information into ChatGPT.

“Many people who are new to using large language models might not know about hallucinations,” Salmi said, referring to a response that may appear sensible but is inaccurate. For example, OpenAI’s Whisper, an AI-assisted transcription tool used in hospitals, introduced an imaginary medical treatment into a transcript, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Using generative AI demands a new type of digital health literacy that includes asking questions in a particular way, verifying responses with other AI models, talking to your health care team, and protecting your privacy online, said Salmi and Dave deBronkart, a cancer survivor and patient advocate who writes a blog devoted to patients’ use of AI.

Patients aren’t the only ones using AI to explain test results. Stanford Health Care has launched an AI assistant that helps its physicians draft interpretations of clinical tests and lab results to send to patients. Colorado researchers studied the accuracy of ChatGPT-generated summaries of 30 radiology reports, along with four patients’ satisfaction with them. Of the 118 valid responses from patients, 108 indicated the ChatGPT summaries clarified details about the original report.

But ChatGPT sometimes overemphasized or underemphasized findings, and a small but significant number of responses indicated patients were more confused after reading the summaries, said Honce, who participated in the preprint study.

Meanwhile, after four weeks and a couple of follow-up messages from Miller in MyChart, Miller’s doctor ordered a repeat of her blood work and an additional test that Miller suggested. The results came back normal. Miller was relieved and said she was better informed because of her AI inquiries.

“It’s a very important tool in that regard,” Miller said. “It helps me organize my questions and do my research and level the playing field.”

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.