Home shoppers are being greeted with much lower mortgage rates to kick off 2020 than they were a year ago. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.72% this week, compared to 4.51% at the beginning of 2019.
Improving economic data has led to a stability in mortgage rates over the last few weeks. Thirty-year rates have generally hovered around an average of 3.7% for the past two months.
What a difference a year makes: “The stability is welcome news after the interest rate turbulence of the last year, which caused a slowdown in the housing market and other interest rate-sensitive sectors,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The low mortgage rate environment combined with the red-hot labor market is setting the stage for a continued rise in home sales and home prices.”
Being in the business as long as we have, and being REALTORS® that are relative to the market, we have first hand witnessed this from 2018 to 2019. The start of 2018 was 3.95%. Rates rose through 2018 into 2019 and have recently pulled back to the 3.72% as noted above. Many homes that we sold in the latter part of 2018 into early 2019 took advantage and have refinanced already!!!
Our first hand experience....We purchased a home in May of 2018 with a 4.5% (with the purchase of 1/2 point) and refinanced that same property in 3rd Quarter of 2019 to a 3.75%.
Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Jan. 2:
30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.72%, with an average 0.7 point, falling slightly from a 3.74% average a week ago. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 4.51%.
15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.16%, with an average 0.7 point, dropping from last week’s 3.19% average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.99%.
So what does this mean? Now can be a great time to take advantage of making that move before rate increases similar to 2018! Contact Us Today if you are interested in making a move in 2020.
Source:Freddie Mac