Stop me if you've seen these headlines before
or this one . . .
Hopefully you didn’t fall for the clickbait! Unfortunately the media and social media are not wrong, but what they fail to preface that statement with is that the rates were also the lowest it has ever been in history! During Covid times (2020-2021) the Feds lowered the mortgage rate and interest rates to spur the economy and keep it running while spending dipped and we were not allowed to do anything fun. (Trust me I know, when the cops showed up because my nosy neighbor thought 6 of us outside by the firepit trying to keep our sanity was too much.)
Needless to say the Feds plan worked when they lowered interest rates and mortgage rates to unprecedented lows. The economy reached a fever pitch and people were buying homes like it was going out of style (think woman’s big hair from the 80’s out of style).
This caused 2 things to happen:
- An increase in home buying – because they were practically giving the money away
- People refinancing to a lower rate – because they were practically giving the money away
Did I mention they were practically giving the money away? The mortgage rate hit a low of 2.7%
Please pour yourself a glass of wine or cup of tea and take a deep breath . . . go ahead I’ll wait for you . . . OK, are you ready? Look at the mortgage rate chart from Freddie Mac below.
If you ask your parents what their initial rate was then they bought their first home they will tell you it was in the TEENS! Now ask your friends whom are in their 40’s how much they paid for their home just before the great recession of 2007 to 2009, and they will anywhere from 6 to 7%
Hit the brakes, wait a second is Mark telling me that the rates are the same as what they are right now? Did he really just refer to himself in the third person? Has he lost his mind? We need someone to check the lost and found.
The chart doesn’t lie. The rates are back to where they used to be in “normal times” (whatever that means).
To prove my point (because every now and then my wife allows me to be right about something) here are the mortgage rates on the same home.
The original owner bought this home house in 1995 at 7.76% mortgage rate.
The new owner (my client) bought it in 2002 at 6.41%
My client then refinanced the home in 2021 (like I advised them to because I reached out to all my past clients of this unprecedented low rates) to a whopping 2.75%
Is your mind blown yet by all this knowledge I just dropped? I hope so because I’m about to drop the mic and grab a cup of coffee and put my feet up.
The moral of the story is you shouldn’t read the clickbait headlines and instead rely on factual information or at the very least contact me to discuss the realities of the housing market. You have options to lower your rate right now and they are even predicting the rates will be lower in 2023. Giving you the option for a rate modification or refinance of your mortgage.
Here’s some clickbait since I know you can’t help yourself:
