Mortgage Rates Decline – Great Time for Buyers to Come Back

If you were discouraged as a home buyer a year ago or were worried about interest rates going up, take a look again, and meet with your lender or if you don’t have one, feel free to contact me for a referral to help you prequalify. Prequalification is how lenders determine if you fit the basic financial criteria for a home loan. To get prequalified, you tell a lender some basic information about your credit, debt, income, and assets, and they tell you how much you may be able to borrow. There are higher inventory of homes on the market, and homes are longer days on market so this may be the perfect time for to make an offer.

According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average tumbled to 3.99 percent with an average 0.5 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount and are in addition to the interest rate.) It was 4.06 percent a week ago and 4.56 percent a year ago. The 30-year fixed rate moved below 4 percent for the first time since January 2018.

U.S. weekly averages as of 05/30/2019 (from 05/30/2018 – 05/30/2019) from FreddieMac.com

Bankrate.com, which puts out a weekly mortgage rate trend index, found that more than half of the experts it surveyed say rates will go down again in the coming week. I personally like to use Bankrate’s website to see mortgage comparisons at a glance, and they have informative articles on retirement, personal finance, home equity, etc… all good educational stuff.  I found through personal experience that the online lenders will often not give you personal attention and if you’re trying to buy a home in a competitive market, this may not always be the best choice. Sometimes local banks or brokerage, you’ll be able to contact them quickly and have your answer in minutes which is very important when applying for a mortgage. AND as SmartAsset states, rates aren’t always guaranteed: “Jumping on board with an online mortgage lender because they’re promising you a super low rate can backfire if it turns out that you’re not eligible for a great deal. By that point, you could be several weeks into the process, so you might feel like it’s too late to back out. And as a result, you could end up paying more for a mortgage than you had originally planned.” You’ll want a smooth escrow so do your research upfront, find out if there are hidden fees the lender charges for processing and funding the loan.

Let me know if I can help introduce you to lenders. I can introduce you to get you started started.

Lynne