As economists predicted, the 30-year fixed rate fell again this week, moving closer to 6%.
Officials at Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.09%, down from 6.13% the week prior.
A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.55%.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell from 5.17% to 5.14%. A year ago, it averaged 2.77%.
“Mortgage rates inched down again, with the 30-year fixed-rate down nearly a full point from November, when it peaked at just over seven percent,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist.
“According to Freddie Mac research, this one percentage point reduction in rates can allow as many as three million more mortgage-ready consumers to qualify and afford a $400,000 loan,…
Better.com is starting 2023 with a product leaders there think will revolutionize the industry: a mortgage application with a one-day turnaround.
Better announced the launch of its One Day Mortgage in a press release. The company says its customers can get pre-approved, lock in a rate, and get a Mortgage Commitment Letter completely online and within 24 hours.
“We spent the first seven years bringing the mortgage industry into the digital era, and executing over $100 billion of fully digital online mortgages. Better’s offerings serve to kickstart the slow, opaque, and costly homeownership process. With One Day Mortgage, Better is revolutionizing the mortgage industry once again by empowering its customers, making it not only cheaper, but also faster and easier…
Home seller return on investment rose to 51% at the end of 2022 despite slowing sales, new data from ATTOM shows.
Sellers nationwide earned $112,000 on the typical sale in 2022, up 21% from 2021 and 78% from before the pandemic.
Both raw profits and ROI have now improved across the country for 11 consecutive years.
Ninety-eight percent of markets with enough data to analyze saw profits increase from 2021 to 2022. The latest number is the highest profit level seen by home sellers since at least 2008.
Sellers in Southern and Western markets saw the highest ROI, led by Hilo, HI (100% ROI); Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ (88.4%); Spokane, WA (86.2%); Fort Myers, FL (85.4%) and Port St. Lucie,…
The pace of home sales has declined to its slowest pace since the beginning of the pandemic, but buyers are slowly starting to search for homes again. According to a new report from Redfin, the typical home sold during the four weeks ending January 8 was on the market for 44 days, the longest period since April 2020. The slowdown resulted in the largest YOY inventory increase in Redfin’s data history. Pending home sales fell by 32% YOY to their lowest recorded level, while mortgage purchase applications dipped to their lowest point since 2014. But early signs of demand like online home searches and tour requests are increasing. Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index rose by 6% as buyers watch interest rates…
Reggora updated its order management platform to embed borrower’s appraisal information into a lender’s POS system, the company announced in a press release. The update improves borrowers’ experience by resolving common issues in the appraisal process. Lenders can collect payments, show appraisal status, and schedule inspections within their POS system. Reggora says the update reduces IT resources required to implement and maintain the integration with a developer-friendly API. “The appraisal is a critical part of the loan process, but, despite all the progress towards a digital mortgage, the appraisal is still done entirely offline,” said Will Denslow, Co-Founder and CTO of Reggora. “There’s a tremendous opportunity for lenders to differentiate by fixing the appraisal experience, and this integration makes it…
Home price growth cooled to the single digits for the first time in a year as both buyers and sellers continued to pull back from the market. The typical home cost $400,000, an annual increase of 8.4%, according to Realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Trends Report. While price appreciation remains elevated, it’s far lower now than its peak of 18% YOY earlier this year. The number of homes for sale was up 74.6% YOY, with 49 of the 50 largest metros seeing their inventory increase. That metric remained 38% lower than the December 2017-2019 average, however. Newly listed homes and pending listings both declined YOY. Home sellers who are locked into low interest rates are hesitant to take on a more expensive…
Mortgage loan application volume rose in the first week of 2023, boosted by a flurry of refinancing, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey. The adjusted Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by 1.2%. Refinances saw the most improvement, up 5% from the week prior, as homeowners took advantage of the market’s reaction to indicators of a slowing economy. Data released last week showed the U.S. economy created fewer jobs in December, and hourly wages grew at the slowest annual pace in 16 months. Wage growth has fallen by a full percentage point since Q2 2022. As a result, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances fell from…
Homebuyers are feeling slightly more optimistic about the market as mortgage rates ease. Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) rose 3.7 points in December. Three of its six components improved from the month prior as more consumers said they expect rates and home prices to drop. After weeks of declines, rates inched up in the first week of 2023 but remain well below 7%. Economists at Freddie Mac expect them to fall further as inflationary pressures ease. But home purchase sentiment remains near its all-time low, set in October, and is down 13.2 points YOY. Only 21% of respondents believe it’s a good time to buy a home. And the possibility of additional rate hikes from the Federal Reserve…
Guild Mortgage is rolling out a new rate buydown program, the company announced in a press release. The program, Payment Advantage, applies to any borrower locking in a conventional mortgage. Guild will then pay 1% of the borrower’s interest rate for one year. The borrower’s monthly payment will increase after that period, but they may then be eligible to refinance. The program is available until March 31, 2023. “Freddie Mac reported that the average commitment interest rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 6.90% in October, more than double the rate of 2.96% across all of 2021,” said Guild CEO Mary Ann McGarry. “With the rising costs of loans in today’s increasingly competitive housing market, we want to continue…
Americans may idolize a white Christmas, but owning a home in the nation’s snowiest states costs a premium, according to a LendingTree analysis. Median-priced homes in the states that got the most snow in December 2021 cost $56,814 more on average than those in the states with the least snow. Alaska, Idaho, and Utah saw the most snowfall last December. Their median home values – $304,900, $369,300, and $421,700 – are 4.93 times higher than their median household incomes. Warmer states are typically less expensive than frigid Northern states, as evidenced by the flood of affordability-minded homebuyers to the Sun Belt. But this isn’t always the case. LendingTree noted that the median home value in Hawaii ($722,500) is at least…
