There’s promising news for Iowa homeowners as mortgage rates slipped slightly after the Federal Reserve signaled the end is in sight for its string of interest rate hikes. Mortgage broker Elliot Zunich says his office has been quiet lately but he expects next month to be busier.Zunich says “The person that typically buys in January couples up with the person that would have bought in December and didn’t because of holidays, family commitments, snow storms, whatever.” Because of rising rates, the monthly payment on a 165-thousand dollar loan is now 70-dollars higher than it was a year ago. Zunich says the higher interest rates have had a significant impact on the real estate market.He says “The buying has slowed down. Talking with the realtors, they said that things have really slowed down. Of course that’s kind of typical for this time of year; there’s a drastic slowdown from October through the end of December.” Bankrate-dot-com says the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage inched down five-hundredths of a point in the last week to six-point-three-four.