Mortgage rates are rising….
The temperature’s rising….and so are mortgage rates, with the 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage (FRM) back to its level at the beginning of the year.
I published two reports earlier this year: Mortgage rates: How low can they go? on January 17 and Have mortgage rates bottomed? on February 14. In them I set out some basic information about mortgage rates and the “spread” between the FRM and the yield on 10 year Treasuries*.
Here is the weekly data for this year, showing the FRM at 3.85%. The rate dropped by about 1/4% earlier in the year and has now reversed that drop:
Why did mortgage rates drop?
After years of dithering the European Central Bank finally embarked on a program of Quantitative Easing (buying Government securities) in March, but in anticipation of the start of the program investors worldwide went on a bond buying spree driving yields on Government securities to extremely low levels. The chart below shows yields in January (blue), the lows reached (orange), largely in February, and current yields (gray). Quite a ride!
And one final chart, showing the movement in exchange rates this year
Whence from here?
A lot of the strength of the US Dollar earlier this year was based on the assumption that interest rates would rise soon. As the economy has produced less than forecast growth, in part because of the winter weather and collapsing oil price, in part because of the strength of the dollar, so expectations of rising interest rates have been pushed out further.
The median and average spread in the table on mortgage rates and 10T yields above are 1.70 and 1.72. On Friday the yield on the 10T dropped to 2.14, meaning the spread was 1.71 based on a 3.85% FRM rate.
Late on Friday HSH.com published this comment: “Mortgage rates firmed a little bit more this week, cresting at the highest levels in six months, but it appears that the four-week rise in rates is over, at least for now. The global selloff in bonds — essentially, a repositioning by investors in light of changes in currencies and central bank programs — pushed mortgage rates up by a little more than a quarter percentage point from the 2015 lows of mid-April.”
Trying to time the mortgage market is a bit like trying to time the stock market. More to the point, mortgage rates below 4% are very attractive. The bigger challenge for buyers is finding a house at a time of widespread scarcity.
*The benchmark for the 30 year mortgage is the 10 year US Treasury yield. What does that mean? In general, banks sell the mortgages they issue to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac who in turn package them into pools and sell them to investors. Because mortgages have higher risks than US Treasuries, investors demand a higher yield than they would accept from Treasuries. The difference in yield between mortgage securities and Treasuries is called the spread.
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
You can REGISTER to receive email alerts of new posts on the right hand side of the home page at www.OliverReports.com.
@OliverReports
Would you like free college tuition with that mortgage?
It’s that time of year when college choices have to be made – and financing decisions also – and so I would like to update an article I first wrote a couple of years ago.
What is the difference in interest payments between a 15-year and 30-year mortgage on a $500,000 loan?
Go on, guess. $25,000? $50,000? That sounds like a lot, but it’s not even close. (more…)
5 mortgage predictions for 2015
The Federal Savings Bank, despite its name, is a private bank. It has just released the following predictions for 2015:
– mortgage rates will remain low in 2015, with the Federal Reserve hesitant to raise rates
– mortgage application volumes will increase, driven by low rates and improvements in the job market
– refinancing activity will increase
– slow international growth will keep US interest rates low
– prospective homebuyers may be more confident about entering the market (more…)
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%. (more…)
Have mortgage rates bottomed?
That’s a bit like saying: is this weekend’s storm the last major one of the winter? The answer is….maybe. Nevertheless, mortgage rates have moved up recently, largely reversing the drop experienced in January when geopolitical factors – the usual suspects, Greece and Russia – contributed to a drop in the yield on the US 10 year Treasury from 2% to 1.7%. That yield has now recovered to 2%, and the 30 year mortgage rate is more or less back to where it was at the beginning of the year, depending on which survey you read (see below for details and comments). (more…)
The Mortgage Mistake?
In this article The Mortgage Mistake from a recent issue of The New Yorker, sent to me by fellow Harborside Sotheby’s agent, Joe McKane, the writer argues that incentives to encourage home ownership – including subsidized mortgage rates and tax deduction of mortgage interest – do little to increase the number of homeowners. Other Western countries have similar rates of home ownership without the same range of incentives.
Almost all the economic benefits of the mortgage deduction go to people earning more than $100,000 a year. Result: people overinvest in housing and underinvest in other types of asset. And because people tend to invest more in housing when the economy is doing well and less when it is doing poorly, housing tends to amplify the economy’s ups and downs.
The trigger for this article is the new 3% down mortgage offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for first-time home buyers (see my recent 3% down mortgages are back post.) Default rates for mortgages with down payments of 3-10% are almost 50% higher than for those with down payment above 10%. Thus, the New Yorker writer argues, while the new mortgages may turn more low-income people into homeowners, it will also likely increase the default rate.
Two questions come to my mind: is increased home ownership an unarguably good thing? And does mortgage interest deduction encourage home ownership?
(more…)
Reasons to Sell your Home in Winter
Today’s Boston Globe carries this article Why selling in winter may be a good idea.
In addition to the benefits mentioned – less inventory means less competition for sellers, while those buyers who are out there are serious – I would add that mortgage rates have dropped sharply already this year and are not far off record lows. See my Mortgage rates: how low can they go? post from yesterday. (more…)
Mortgage rates: how low can they go?
Remember the forecasts of 5% mortgages? 6% mortgages?
Well here we are in January 2015 and the 30 year mortgage rate is well below 4%. In fact I was in a Bank of America branch this week and saw a sign for 30 year mortgages at 3.5% (with points), while the national average reported by Freddie Mac on Thursday was 3.66%.
The benchmark for the 30 year mortgage is the 10 year US Treasury yield. What does that mean? In general, banks sell the mortgages they issue to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac who in turn package them into pools and sell them to investors. Because mortgages have higher risks than US Treasuries, investors demand a higher yield than they would accept from Treasuries. The difference in yield between mortgage securities and Treasuries is called the spread.
This chart shows the spread from 2005 to 2014. I have summarized the high and low spread for each year in the table below the chart. For most of the period the spread was between 1.50% and 2.00%. It was over 2.00% throughout the crisis year of 2008 and did not drop below 2.00% until April 2009, but has been below 2.00% almost the entire period since then. What does this mean for mortgage rates?
Sources: US Treasury, Freddie Mac
The 10Y Treasury yield on Friday was 1.84%, so adding a spread of 1.50 – 2.00% would produce a 30 year FRM of 3.34 – 3.84%. And we are at 3.66%.
Where does the 10 Y Treasury yield go from here?
I think every expert forecaster has been wrong on US interest rates. The assumption was that once the Federal Reserve stopped buying mortgage backed securities and Treasuries (Quantitative Easing), interest rates throughout the economy would rise, driven by a strengthening economy and hence the demand for loans to finance business and mortgages. What has got in the way of that forecast, in simple terms, has been: geopolitical risk (Crimea, Ukraine, terrorism) which always leads to a flight to safe investments, and US Treasuries are regarded as the safest investment available worldwide; and grave concerns about deflation in many parts of the world, but especially in Europe, where a huge expansion of QE is expected to be announced next week.
The US is growing economically quite strongly and has stopped its QE program, while Europe is stagnating and about to ramp up its QE program. One of the consequences of this divergence has been a stronger US dollar which is one of the factors behind the collapse in commodity prices.
And on top of this, which in itself fuels the demand for US Treasuries as a safe haven in a strong currency, the yield on US Treasuries is higher than that available in many other countries.
Predictions
As I have said many times predicting the future is very difficult! Very few countries in Europe have even started on the structural changes necessary to get their economies moving, and many commentators fear that QE is seen as a free lunch, when the only thing that is certain is that it will lead to even greater debt in already over indebted countries. No wonder the US is seen as a safe haven!
It does seem that the biggest concern worldwide is avoiding deflation and it is hard to see how interest rates can rise against that background. In the beginning of 2015, buyers of homes in the US have been given an unexpected opportunity to finance their purchases at interest rates close to the lowest ever seen. Could mortgage rates go even lower in the coming weeks? Certainly, but with the time lag involved when buying a home, trying to time interest rates, like trying to time the stock market, is unlikely to be a successful strategy. Rates are very low: take advantage of them!
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
You can REGISTER to receive email alerts of new posts on the right hand side of the home page at www.OliverReports.com.
@OliverReports
Mortgage Rates drop to 3.66%
The 30-year national average mortgage rate, as reported by Freddie Mac, started 2014 at 4.5% with forecasts that by year end the rate would reach over 5%. For a number of reasons, which I will go into again more fully in my post this coming Saturday, the rate in January 2014 was the highest for the year and ended 2014 at 3.87%.
This year the slide has continued with the rate reaching 3.66% this week, the lowest level since May 2013 and not far from the record low of 3.31%. The decline in rates seems likely to trigger renewed buying interest and may shorten the traditionally quiet winter market.
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
You can REGISTER to receive email alerts of new posts on the right hand side of the home page at www.OliverReports.com.
@OliverReports
3% down mortgages from Fannie Mae are back!
Fannie Mae has announced its new 3% down mortgage program for qualified first-time home buyers who “may not have the resources for a larger down payment.” (more…)
Mortgage loan limits increase in MA Counties
In 5 MA Counties – Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk – conforming loan limits for mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2015 will increase from $470,350 to $517,500 “because those counties experienced increases in local home values”, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
This increase is good news for borrowers as it means the starting point for jumbo loans will increase in those Counties. (more…)
The outlook for mortgage rates in 2015
Fannie Mae this week cut its forecast for the average mortgage rate for 2015 from 4.5% to 4.3%, which compares with the current national average of around 4.1%.
It is worth bearing in mind that a year ago the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) forecast that the 30 year mortgage rate would reach 5.1% by the end of this year.
That, of course is one of the biggest problem with forecasts – they have to be made about the future, which contains so much uncertainty. If only we could just stick to making “forecasts” about the past, life would be so much easier! (more…)
Flood Insurance: “Because without it your home is a disaster waiting to happen”
It seems appropriate on this morning of another nor’easter to echo the reminder recently sent out by FEMA.
– Flood damage is not covered by most homeowners insurance.
– Flooding is the #1 natural disaster.
– People outside high-risk areas file over 20% of NFIP claims and receive one-third of disaster assistance for flooding
– In high-risk areas homes have at least a 1 in 4 chance of flooding over a 30 year mortgage
– Flood insurance is mandatory if you live in a high-risk area and have a mortgage from a federally regulated or insured lender.
For more information go to FloodSmart.gov (more…)
Home Equity loans jump – or did they?
This week Equifax announced New credit for HELOCs increases 21% year over year. New Home Equity loans reached a 6 year high in July.
Mindful that there are a lot of 10 year HELOCs coming due in the next few years my first reaction was one of caution, tending towards concern. After all, a lot of the housing boom was financed by people using the equity in their homes. HELOCs opened between 2004-2008 account for 60 percent of outstanding loans and more than $221 billion in HELOC loans will be due for repayment or refinancing from 2014-2018.
But I read on and learned:
(a) While new loans “jumped” 21% to $66 bn, the total amount of HELOCs outstanding at the end of August was $478 billion, a 5 year low and a 4% decrease over a year ago.
(b) Total HELOC volume is only just over a third of the levels before The Great Recession.
All in all, therefore, it does not appear that new home equity loan levels are a cause for concern, nor are they an indication that we are again all glued to HGTV and borrowing freely to speculate invest in real estate. I do, however, have some concern as to the impact as the 2004-2008 loans come due.
What is the difference between a Home Equity Loan and a Home Equity Line of Credit?
A HELOC is a line of revolving credit with an adjustable interest rate whereas a home equity loan is a one time lump-sum loan, often with a fixed interest rate. A HELOC can be drawn down as and when needed and bears interest only. A Home Equity Loan, however, is more like a mortgage, with a one time draw down and payments that include Principal.
Put another way, the payments on a HELOC are a lot less than those on a Loan. Hence their popularity with homeowners.(Outstanding HELOCs are $477 bn while outstanding home equity loans are only $125 billion.)
The bad news is that after 10 years of interest only payments borrowers will have to refinance, pay off the loan or start making Principal payments over a shorter time frame. (I heard of one recently which converted into a 6 year mortgage.Ouch!).
Equifax made this comment about the classes of 2004-2008: “The financial circumstances of borrowers and the value of properties against which these lines are held may have deteriorated.” NSS!
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
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be bringing back 3% down mortgages
In a speech this week to the Mortgage Bankers Association, Mel Watt, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (which regulates Fannie and Freddie) announced that: “to increase access for creditworthy but lower-wealth borrowers, FHFA is …. working with the Enterprises (Fannie and Freddie) to develop sensible and responsible guidelines for mortgages with loan-to-value ratios between 95 and 97 percent.”
Earlier this year FNM discontinued its 97% Conventional Loan, which was described by Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports as: “a true, three-percent-downpayment mortgage program, for which the 3% downpayment may come as a gift. In many respects, it’s more aggressive that the FHA’s benchmark mortgage product in that guidelines are simpler and less-restrictive.”
Mr. Watt hopes that : “through these revised guidelines, we believe that the Enterprises will be able to responsibly serve a targeted segment of creditworthy borrowers with lower-down payment mortgages by taking into account “compensating factors.” Further details about these new guidelines will be available in the coming weeks as we continue to advance FHFA’s mission of ensuring safety, soundness and liquidity in the housing finance markets.”
Click here to read Mr.Watt’s remarks.
If you – or somebody you know – are considering buying or selling a home , or have questions about the market and/or current home prices, please 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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