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The interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to a 2.84% average this week but remains near all-time lows. Last week, the rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage set a record low of 2.78%. “Mortgage rates jumped this week as a result of positive news about a COVID-19 vaccine,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Despite this rise, mortgage rates remain about a percentage point below a year ago, and the low-rate environment is supportive of both purchase and refinance demand. Heading into late fall, the housing market continues to grow and buttress the economy.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Nov. 12:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: Averaged 2.84%, with an average 0.7 point, up from last week’s record 2.78% average. A year ago, 30-year rates averaged 3.75%.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: Averaged 2.34%, with an average 0.6 point, increasing from last week’s 2.32%. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.20%.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: Averaged 3.11%, with an average 0.4 point, increasing from last week’s 2.89% average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.44%.

Freddie Mac reports average commitment rates along with points to better reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining a mortgage.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, nearly one in six renters are late on their payments, according to a LendingTree analysis reflecting data from late September to early October. Further, more than one in four renters say they have no confidence or are only slightly confident in being able to make next month’s payment.

A federal eviction moratorium will expire Dec. 31. That could leave many renters without a home and property managers with missed payments and fewer tenants. The National Association of REALTORS® has been advocating for rental assistance. Read more: Encourage Tenants to Seek Rental Assistance

LendingTree recently analyzed in which areas around the country renters are struggling with their payments the most. Topping the list, 29% of Mississippi renters are behind on payments, nearly double the nation’s average rate of 16.2%. Louisiana follows with a 28.3% default rate and Tennessee with a 24.8% rate.

The 10 states seeing the highest percentage of renters behind on their payments have a median household income below the national average (excluding New York). “That can make it more difficult to stay up to date with rent, especially during a pandemic,” LendingTree notes.

The age demographic most behind on rent are those between the ages of 40–54 (22.2% of renters in that age segment are struggling), the LendingTree study finds. The 65 and older age group (7.2%) and the 18-to-24 age group (11.1%) are reporting some of the fewest instances of falling behind on rent.

In many areas, renters aren’t feeling any better about their finances. The following states have the most renters who have expressed the least confidence in making their next month’s payment:

• Mississippi: 46.5%
• Louisiana: 42.8%
• Iowa: 37.3%
• Pennsylvania: 33.9%
• Florida: 33.4%
• Connecticut: 31.5%
• New York: 30.7%
• Delaware: 29.9%
• Michigan: 29.1%
• Alabama: 29%

On the other hand, in some states, renters are doing much better and appear to be less affected by the pandemic. The states in which the fewest renters are falling behind are Montana (4.2%), Vermont (6.8%), and Utah (8%).

Home shopping was down last week as the nation focused its attention on a heated presidential election and a surging number of coronavirus cases across the country, realtor.com® reports in its Weekly Housing Report.

Mortgage demand from home buyers dropped to the lowest level in six months, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Wednesday. Its weekly mortgage index showed that loan applications to buy a home dropped 3% last week. Applications are still 16% higher than a year ago, however. But the latest dip in applications marked the sixth time in seven weeks that the index has seen a decrease, and last week’s marked its lowest level since May 2020, MBA reports.

“Between the presidential election and a new wave of coronavirus cases, buyers and sellers had a lot of reasons to pause last week,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “The big question is whether both buyers and sellers will jump back into the market after last week’s break. With mortgage rates expected to rise on news of a likely vaccine, buyers may have reason to jump back in and find a home sooner rather than later, but sellers may be more inclined to stay on hold. Thus, even as overall activity slows, we may very well see continued price growth and quick sales.”

A limited number of homes for sale likely continues to constrain buyers too. Newly listed properties are down by double digits compared to a year ago. “New listings are a crucial ingredient for home sales, and they will need to make a strong comeback for housing activity to continue,” realtor.com® notes in its report.

Meanwhile, listing prices continue to see double-digit growth, up 12.9% over last year, according to realtor.com® data. Homes that are on the market are selling fast, with the number of days on the market nearly two weeks fewer than last year. If homes continue to sell quickly, “it is a good indication that buyers have no intention of taking the holidays off this year, but continued steadiness in the year-over-year difference would mean we’re seeing at least some of the usual seasonal pause in housing activity,” realtor.com® notes in its report.

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In the third quarter, 16.7 million residential properties in the U.S., or 28.3% overall, were considered “equity rich,” according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate research data firm. A property is considered equity rich when the property owner has at least 50% equity in the home.

“Homeowner equity in the third quarter added another pebble to the pile of markers showing that the U.S. housing market continues to defy the broad downturn in the economy this year,” says Todd Teta, chief product and technology officer for ATTOM Data Solutions. “Home prices keep rising, boosting the balance sheets of homeowners throughout most of the country. With the foundation under the housing market still shaky as the coronavirus remains a threat, we will continue to monitor closely the various metrics, including equity. But as it’s been through the pandemic, the market is strong and homeowners remain in a position to benefit.”

Four of the 10 states with the largest gains in the share of equity-rich homes from the second to the third quarter were in New England, the report shows. The top five were Vermont, where the level of homes considered equity rich increased to 45.1% in the third quarter (up from 39.1% in the second quarter); Maine (33.5%); South Dakota (30.3%); New Hampshire (26.7%); and Idaho (39.5%).

By county level, the top equity-rich areas remained concentrated in the West and Northeast, ATTOM’s report shows. The highest concentration of equity-rich properties were once again in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

Mortgage rates at all-time lows have helped drive U.S. home sales to a 14-year high. Existing homeowners also are rushing to take advantage, prompting a 200% annual increase in refinancing. Mortgage lenders have faced a hectic business during the pandemic as many systems were quickly forced to go remote.

“It’s been a complicated year for the mortgage industry,” says Jim Houston, managing director of consumer lending and automotive finance intelligence at J.D. Power. “Between surging customer volumes on the origination side, an influx of customer inquiries on the servicing side, and a workforce that has been completely displaced by the pandemic, resources have been stretched to their limits. That strain is showing up in slower loan processing times, missed opportunities to communicate, and unreliable self-service tools.”

Houston said that while some of these “shortcomings” may have been viewed as opportunities in prior years, current market conditions and customer satisfaction metrics indicate that “mortgage originators need to look hard at fixing them if they want to stay viable.”

Still, customer satisfaction with primary mortgage originators rose 6 points this year, which was largely driven by competitiveness over offered interest rates, according to J.D. Power’s newly released 2020 U.S. Primary Mortgage Origination Study. The average refinancing processing time rose to 42 days from application to closing (up from 39 days in 2019). J.D. Power also found a notable increase in the number of customers using self-service channels for loan applications and approvals.

Lender satisfaction seemed to be directly linked to frequency of communication from the lender, according to J.D. Power. The more lenders communicate with customers during the application, closing, and onboarding processes, the more customer satisfaction improved, they found.

Overall, Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans ranked the highest in mortgage origination satisfaction for the 11th consecutive year, followed by Bank of America and Chase (which tied for second), according to J.D. Power.

The 2020 U.S. Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study measures overall customer satisfaction from 4,300 customer responses based on the following four metrics: application/approval process, communication, loan closing, and loan offerings.

Monday’s announcement of promising COVID-19 vaccine test results prompted investors to get bullish on several real estate stocks, notably within sectors of the market that have faltered during the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal reported as part of Monday’s vaccine news: “The share prices of some of the country’s biggest property owners were up more than 20% Monday compared with a roughly 3% increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.”

Office owners have faced high vacancy rates during the pandemic. Hotel and retail owners also have been among the hardest-hit real estate sectors during the pandemic as consumers avoid public venues. But after news broke of the positive vaccine results from BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc., hotels and retailers saw an increase in the stock market.

Among the winners on Monday: Shares of Host Hotels & Resorts Inc., one of the nation’s largest hotel owners, jumped 30%. Simon Property Group, one of the country’s largest mall owners, saw shares increase 28%. SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office owner, posted a 37% increase, WSJ reports.

“Real estate was a COVID loser,” Michael Knott, head of U.S. REIT research at Green Street, told WSJ. “Many of the business models are based on assembly of people. And now with the potential vaccine, it’s like Doc Brown [from ‘Back to the Future’] figured out how to get his time machine to work.”

Pfizer reported on Monday that its early data suggested its vaccine under development might be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19.

“This offers a ray of hope that the market did not hesitate to take advantage of,” Tai Hui of J.P. Morgan Asset Management said in a report.