We’ve been receiving many questions from clients lately asking about the real estate market and mortgage rates since our mortgage rates post back on March 16th.

 

Since that date we’ve seen mortgage rates continue to be highly volatile and they bounced up into the low 4's for a couple days. Although in the past week they’ve settled down a bit into a new normal with 30 Year Fixed conventional rates in the 3.25%-3.5% ballpark depending upon credit scores.

 

That’s not much worse than where we were before the corona virus hit, so that’s great to see. What we have seen though is pricing that makes it very difficult to get much in lender credit for rates to help reduce closing costs. On the plus side you can go lower in rates without as much in buy down costs as we used to have. The biggest impact that the virus has had on mortgages over the past two weeks are:

 

• High Balance Conventional rates which went up quite a bit and are hovering around 3.75% now

• Jumbo loans which have become extremely difficult to find and when we can the rates and costs are going to be higher than they have been over the past year

• Non-conventional loan products with more flexible guidelines have been largely eliminated (I’ve got two lending sources that are still doing them)

• Government backed loans (VA, FHA, USDA) do not have good rates or availability and many lenders aren’t even offering those loans at the moment. (We’ve got a couple that still do)

 

Lending institutions have basically said by their rates/pricing they want the straight forward conventional loans that will be backed and securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and they will offer great rates for those. Thankfully the big jump up we had in rates has alleviated and those people purchasing or refinancing still have good options available.

 

If you are considering refinancing there are still some great opportunities out there to grab a great rate particularly on certain days and times. That requires having a loan file setup in at least one lenders system ready to be locked at a moment’s notice when pricing is good. If you are curious about what might be available for your needs please reach out to us for input and an analysis if we can save you some money.