Mortgages: another last chance to lock in low rates?

A funny thing happened on the inevitable path to higher mortgage rates: they went down again, back close to the lows for the year. Bear in mind that a year ago the 30 year rate was 4.40%.

Source: US Treasury, Freddie Mac

Freddie Mac’s weekly report stated:  “The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 3.69 percent this week following a decline in 10-year Treasury yields. Low mortgage rates are a welcome sign for those in the market to buy a home this spring season and will help to support homebuyer affordability. Existing home sales in February increased slightly, but less than expected, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million units. Meanwhile, new home sales [PDF] outperformed expectations and surged 7.8 percent to an annual pace of 539,000 units.”

In mid-February, as mortgage rates started to rise again, I wrote Have mortgage rates bottomed?  I went out on a limb and said “maybe”. But then the Federal Reserve came out with another set of words to describe its approach to raising rates which the market interpreted as meaning: “rates will be going up, by some amount, at some time, possibly in the next couple of months.”

As HSH (hsh.com) said in its weekly report: “for many borrowers, affordability remains strong (if somewhat diminished) and the issue is access to credit more so than the price of it.”

If you can find the house you want to buy – and supply remains at extremely low levels – then current rates are very attractive – again.

If you – or somebody you know – are considering buying or selling a home and have questions about the market and/or current home prices, feel free to contact me on 617.834.8205 or Andrew.Oliver@SothebysRealty.com.

Andrew Oliver is a Realtor with Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty Sotheby’s International Realty® is a registered trademark licensed to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated

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