Will Higher Mortgage Rates Help or Hinder the Real Estate Market?
Mortgage rates jumped to 4.8% – their highest level since December – and home mortgage applications are way down.
But is it the start of a sustained move above historically low rates, or a limited move, as Dan Alpert, Managing Partner at Westwood Capital claims?
“The truth is I wouldn’t necessarily run out to do a 30-year mortgage today. I’d probably wait another month to see what happens. It’s very unlikely in my opinion that those rates are going to widen out even further.”
Other analysts speculate that the increase in mortgage rates could actually help the market’s recovery, both by forcing fence-sitters to lock in rates before they rise any further and by boosting profits for lenders.
(See Wall Street Daily’s Louis Basenese for more information on the housing market.)
Related Topics: Economy and Politics, Real Estate
Bankrate isn’t a fantastic sucroe, as my rates are always better than what they offer, and rates can change on a whim (we had 4 reprices today w/most of my lenders).Also, the Fed cutting the rate usually forces rates upward, as inflation becomes a concern, and mortgage bonds despise inflation this is not the case this time as there was a global rate cut to stave off inflation.Your best bet is to have a lender/broker you can entrust. One thing about life with a bank is that once you’re locked in, you’re locked in. With a broker, you can switch lenders if pricing improves. They were right in that rates took a large hit today, but things should settle down and go right back to everywhere they were shortly possibly even lower as the election gets quicker (pun how that works).
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