Mortgage rates may be moving higher but eager buyers continue to drive loan applications to purchase a home higher as well. Mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 1% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. Home shoppers may be rushing to lock in rates ahead of any further increases. But higher mortgage rates …
Category: Real Estate Tips
May 02
Borrowing Costs Jump as Rates Continue to Increase
For the fourth consecutive week, mortgage rates surged, up more than 90 basis points in one month. Rates have jumped from 3.76% to 4.67% in just March alone, significantly increasing the borrowing costs for buyers, Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting at the National Association of REALTORS®, wrote for the association’s blog. The …
May 01
ARMs May Appeal to Buyers Seeking Savings
Adjustable-rate mortgages can carry some risks, but as rates rise, more home buyers may consider them. ARMs typically have a lower initial interest rate than 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, but the rate will change after a defined duration. Borrowers then must pay the rate set when their lock period expires, which can be risky if rates …
Apr 30
Mortgage Rates on the Horizon
Mortgage rates have been rising quickly over the past month. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.18%. Last week, it averaged 4.67%, according to Freddie Mac. Mortgage rates surged more than 90 basis points in March alone. And 5% mortgage rates may be here sooner than many housing analysts had originally predicted. Several leading …
Apr 29
Rising Rates Constrain Buyers’ Budgets
Home buyers this spring are facing a double whammy of rising home prices and mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.72% this week, from 3.13% when compared to a year ago, Freddie Mac reports. Over the last three months, mortgage rates have risen by 1.5 percentage points, the fastest three-month rise since May …
Apr 26
Buyers Hope to Secure Mortgage Rates
Mortgage rates are quickly rising and home buyers are trying to snatch up low rates before further increases. Rate lock activity jumped in March as the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage neared 5%, according to Black Knight’s March Originations Market Monitor. “Despite seeing the fastest one-month rise in rates in nearly 13 years, we saw purchase …
Apr 25
Buyers May Need to Seek Homes $40K Cheaper
Inflation is at a 40-year high, and the average consumer is spending $500 more a month on living expenses than a year ago. As such, home buyers may need to lower their budgets to keep pace. House hunters would be smart to search for a home that is about $40,000 cheaper than they would have a …
Apr 24
Mortgage Rates
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to a 5% average this week, the first time it’s been that high since 2011. Since the beginning of the year, mortgage rates have jumped by 1.8 percentage points and added about $400 to the average monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home, Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of …
Apr 23
Calmer Market Ahead
The past two years have been quite exceptional for real estate. Home sales boomed. Home prices rose at the fastest rate in modern times. However, such a strong housing market created growing pains. Inventory shrank to its lowest count ever. Even through the recent winter months, the inventory that has made it onto the market …
Apr 22
Mortgage Rates Rise
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.11% this week, continuing its rapid rise, Freddie Mac reports. The higher borrowing costs are forcing home buyers to expand their budgets. With higher rates and home prices, house hunters need to earn about $25,000 extra if they want to buy the typical home now compared to a year earlier, …
Apr 19
Housing Affordability Is Stressing Out Buyers
High home prices and mortgage rates are serving as a wake-up call to potential home buyers this spring that their budgets just aren’t going to go as far as they would have a year ago. In the first quarter of this year, 81% percent of consumers said they could afford less than half the homes …
Apr 18
Buyers Must Budget Extra For Closing Costs
Average closing costs for a single-family home rose by 13.4% in 2021, according to a new analysis by CoreLogic, a real estate research firm. That equates to about $6,905 including transfer taxes and $3,860 when transfer taxes are excluded. Home buyers also are facing higher borrowing costs from mortgage rates and higher home prices. The …
