The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points and its chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank expects the real estate market to normalize as well as interest rates to normalize.

Compass Real Estate brokers Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon join Josh Lipton on “Asking for a Trend” to discuss what the rate cut means for the U.S. housing market.

Postilio tells Yahoo Finance that the real estate industry is “popping the champagne bottles because there have been nothing but headwinds over the past three years,” but the “halfway point is big news.”

“August is usually a pretty quiet month, (but this year) it was a hot month,” Conlon says, explaining that there is typically less interest in buying a home in the fall, especially before a presidential election.

“We jumped in immediately, and all in anticipation of today’s announcement,” because it seems as though people have put aside any election worries “because the pent-up demand is so great and has been for three years” and “this announcement has given (buyers) permission to make a decision,” explains Conlon.

Postilio notes that this increase in demand is happening “across the board,” but the luxury sector stands out in particular. Compass Real Estate saw the most contract closings in nearly two decades during the week after Labor Day, he reports.

“Low inventory and high interest rates” were “an absolute disaster for first-time buyers because they really couldn’t afford those prices,” Conlon notes, suggesting that the rate cut could help alleviate those challenges.

Click here to watch the full episode of Asking for a Trend for more expert insights and information on current market events.

This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.