Although all real estate is local, this Bloomberg Report with Jeff Taylor, Managing Partner of Digital Risk, sums up the overall U.S. new housing numbers, current mortgage rates and lending practices, and provides a glimpse of mortgage lending criteria in the near future.
Current consideration of phasing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next 5-7 years has everyone in the real estate and mortgage markets speculating as to the effect it will have. Created after the depression to help people buy homes, these two entities and FHA, now buy or insure 97% of home loans.
Some of the effects include:
Two articles in last week’s New York Time online, Without Loan Giants, 30-Year Mortgage May Fade Away and A Plan to Phase Out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do a great job of providing looking at the pros and cons of these programs and examining possible outcomes of phasing them out.
Whatever happens, it is another sign that housing will likely never be as cheap as it is now.
This table from the KCM post “The Cost of Waiting for Prices to Fall” is a great visual to update my post from yesterday regarding mortgage rates hitting the 5% mark
Mortgage rates are inching up, currently hovering around 5%. According to a CNNmoney.com report, interest rates at 5% don’t affect home buyers. While 5% is still low, and would only add slightly to a monthly mortgage, a continued increase in rates will affect the amount of home a buyer can purchase.
Other posts that discuss mortgage rates include:
Starting in March 1 for Freddie Mac and April 1 for Fannie Mae interest rates for loans over 15 years could almost double, even if you have perfect credit.
Remember, if you are a buyer the cost of owning a home is more important than the price of the home. Obviously you don’t want to overpay for a home, but by waiting for prices to “bottom out” you may be overlooking the most important part of purchasing a property or home – interest rates. Trying to time the real estate market perfectly is like trying to time the stock market.
You Have Heard It But Do You Believe It
With prices still on a downward slide in South Florida, the number of sales are up as buyers realize the buying opportunity these price decreases represent. And although 30-year mortgage rates inched up slightly this week, they are still under 5% and near historic lows.
These interest rates will help first time buyers, but may not play much of a difference in Miami’s high end market: 2 out of 3 sales in the $1,000,000 and over market are cash sales.
I came across a great article that explains the effect of interest rates on your purchasing power so well, that I have to blog about it. Now that inventories are decreasing and we are running into an April 30, 2010 deadline for tax credits, you have to read it if you have been on the fence about whether or not now is the right time to buy real estate.
The article, If You Don’t Buy a House Now, You’re Stupid or Broke may have an offensive title, but the graphs that it contains illustrate historic interest rates and increasing trends and the explanation on how an increase in rates affect what you will pay in principal in interest are easy to understand. In a nutshell:
After rising for the past four weeks, long-term mortgage rates fell last week. Freddie Mac reported 30- year fixed rate mortgages averaged around 5.09%, down from 5.14% last week.