Last week Freddie Mac announced that their 30-year fixed mortgage rate was over 3% (3.02%) for the first time since last July. And boy! Everyone jumped on the bandwagon talking about the negative impact this would have on the housing market. But will it really? Nothin was alarming about this rate increase. Freddie Mac's comments about the rate increase was not alarming at all. They said, "The rise in mortgage rates over the next couple of months is likely to be more muted in comparison to the last few weeks, and we expect a strong spring sales season." A "muted" rise in rates will not adversely affect the real estate market - and based on inventory levels, we will still see a strong spring sales season.
Rates over the last 5 years have averaged the following:
- 2016: 3.65%
- 2017: 3.99%
- 2018: 4.54%
- 2019: 3.94%
- 2020: 3.11%
We hit an all-time low in December 2020 at 2.66%.
While we'd love for rates to say sub-3%, as you can see above, 3.02% is really still very close to our all-time low.
In fact, let's go back 50 years. When we look at average rates over the last 5 decades, the interest rates looked like this:
- 1970's: 8.86%
- 1980's: 12.7%
- 1990's: 8.12%
- 2000's: 6.29%
- 2010's: 4.09%
When we purchased our first home in 1991, we were thrilled to be under 10%. I think our first home interest rate was 9.75%. Later in the 90's we purchased our second home with a rate around 7.5%. And, after moving to Summit County in 1999, we have refinanced our home several times as we saw significant drops in interest rates and now we have a 3% mortgage on our home.
We get that maybe you missed the best mortgage rate ever, but buying now still makes more sense than waiting, especially if rates continue to bump up this year.
It is true that you may not get the same rate you would have 6 weeks ago. However, you will get a better rate than what was possible at almost any other point in history.