The decision to refinance a mortgage is often based on fickle metrics and margins, making it difficult for many homeowners to know exactly when to take advantage of a good opportunity to cut down their monthly payments. But with the 30-year-fixed mortgage rate on a general upward trend over the last year, any downward retreat […]
The landscape of the U.S. housing market has become more difficult both for buyers and sellers as a result of higher mortgage rates. When the 30-year fixed rate climbed above 7% in October for the first time in two decades, it became a clear sign that home affordability was slipping away from many buyers. One […]
Home affordability in the United States has become unattainable for large segments of the population in 2022 thanks to high mortgage rates, inflation, housing scarcity and prices that were driven up by the historically low home loan rates seen during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The housing market this year has been […]
The U.S. housing market has entered territory not seen since the turn of the century, with the 30-year mortgage rates pushing up to 7.16% this week. The last time it crossed that plane was 2001. For months, the Fed has been hiking interest rates in an effort to curb inflation, including the soaring home prices […]
Watching the appreciation of home prices during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic sometimes left the impression that “down” was no longer a direction the U.S. housing market could go. Double-digit increases in median home values were buoyed by low home supply and heavy demand from buyers incentivized by low mortgage rates. But […]
The Federal Reserve last week logged its biggest increase in the nation’s benchmark interest rate since 1994, bumping it 75 basis points to a range of 1.5%-1.75% to combat inflation. A housing market that had been on fire during 2020-2021 now looks significantly different — and more daunting — to prospective home buyers on the […]
For months, economic signs and pressures have pointed to a cooldown in the U.S. housing market in response to climbing mortgage rates. Two years of the pandemic brought soaring home prices, surging buyer demand and limited housing inventory — a Goldilocks zone for home sellers — but the party looks to be coming to an […]
After more than two years of record home prices in the U.S., the Fed has wasted little time this year in hiking interest rates. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage, now at 5.11%, is up from just over 3% at the start of the year as policymakers look to corral an economy that has seen sharp […]
Just as the coronavirus pandemic helped support some of the economic conditions for a surging U.S. real estate market, new global events have the ability to significantly alter the outlook of the housing market. With the Fed beginning to raise U.S. interest rates more aggressively in response to inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the […]
Heading into to 2022, there was some optimism that the runaway housing market in the United States might come back down to Earth a bit after the unprecedented rise in home prices seen during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s beginning to look like that assessment may have been a bit premature. […]
