By Attorney Jaquelyn Yeakle
Are you looking to refinance or buy a house? If so, the time to do either is now! The mortgage interest rates have not been this low since the end of 2012 when the thirty-year fixed-rate was around 3.31%. The current 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is around 3.25%. If you are one of the many people considering refinancing at this time, but you think the rates may get even lower, do not count on it. Act now because it is not guaranteed that the rates will continue to decrease. Additionally, lenders can only process a certain amount of loans at any given time, and lenders may soon hit their max capacity to process such loan applications due to staff sizes. Some lenders may hire additional employees to help process the influx of refinance applications, while others may not since the workload will eventually return to normal and any additional staff will no longer be needed.
It is also a great time to buy a house because of the low mortgage interest rates. There is one caveat, though – there are not a lot of houses on the market. The average number of houses on the market is much lower than typical for this time of year. So, while you may get a low mortgage rate, you will likely face competition while trying to buy a house. Be prepared to bid on several houses before an offer gets accepted. And if you think waiting until summer is a better course of action, there may be even fewer houses available and the mortgage interest rate may increase by then.
Why have the mortgage rates dropped? Likely due to the coronavirus and investors shifting their investments from stocks to bonds. Once the virus is contained and the uncertainty dwindles, the mortgage rates will likely increase and go back to the norm. So, if you are debating about refinancing your house, the time to do it is now, and if you want to buy a house within the next several months, start the bidding process now.
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