Category: Interest Rates

It’s 2014 – so why aren’t rates higher?

You may have noticed a trend in the last month or so of interest rates actually declining. Despite economists predicting that they will rise steadily, and keep rising, all through 2014, they haven’t so far. A 30-year-fixed mortgage is somewhere around 4.5 percent right now, and has been since the holidays began. However, let’s not throw a party just yet. The

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It Might Be Easier To Get A Mortgage These Days

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about how credit will be getting tighter and more difficult for almost all borrowers and would-be home owners. Interest rates going up plus a tightening of requirements may have made you feel like you just can’t afford a mortgage right now. You could be completely wrong. In fact, borrowers today could have an

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Why Rising Interest Rates May Prompt You To Buy

When you hear that mortgage interest rates are rising, your first instinct may be that this means that homes sales will go down. That’s not necessarily the case. While it’s true that borrowing costs are increasing and interest rates are moving up from their historically low numbers, many real estate professionals still believe that this will actually boost sales. When

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Mortgage Rates May Go Up in 2014

An article in the Wall Street Journal this past week describes why mortgage rates may begin to rise in spring of 2014 (http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2013/12/17/why-mortgage-costs-could-rise-in-2014/).  While it is always a challenge for buyers without a down payment or with not-so-great credit scores to secure the best possible rate, it seems that it may be more challenging than it has been in 2013.

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“See-Saw”-ing Mortgage Rates

I recently saw an article about mortgage rates and how they are currently “see-saw”ing back and forth, up and down. The article was well-written, but it points out that the market is real-time, while the media is not. The article discusses recent rate drops, but at only a week or so old it is already long-outdated and useless to you

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Where will rates go over the next 18 to 24 months?

I read an article today that I wanted to share with everyone. To preface the article home loan rates are typically about 1.5% to 2.5% higher than the 10 year treasury note. Many home buyers have either decided to hold off for rates to come back down, or they have been unwilling to lower their price range. If the actual

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The Effects of Higher Rates on South Bay Real Estate

On Friday, July 5th, mortgage markets reached another multi-year high for 30-year-fixed mortgages. This recent series of dramatic rises in mortgage rates will affect the market in numerous ways. Of course, mortgage applications will decline and refinancing is slowing down as rates rise, but the affordability of homes is also very different when interest rates go up even one full

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What the Recent Rise in Morgate Rates Means

Even though mortgage rates have recently soared to the highest level in two years, rising at the fastest pace since 1987, the housing market won’t be derailed. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now somewhere in the 4.5% range, and some economists predict it could soar to 5% over the next year. Prospective home buyers may be concerned that they

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The Federal Reserve’s New Rates

With the Federal Reserves announcing that they will start to taper their bond buying policies the 10 year treasury note skyrocketed to a 4 year high. Rates for home loans have gone up almost 1% in just three weeks, the biggest advance since June 2009. The average cost of new 30-year, fixed-rate home loans climbed to 4.24 percent from 3.36

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Interest Rates and the Media

Online articles, even the ones on major news and business websites, aren’t a great source of the “real time” position of the South Bay real estate loan market. It takes time to write and publish an article, but the actual market is dynamic and changes hourly. From the time the data is recorded and written to the time it is

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