30 Year Fixed over 6%
Rhonda Porter on 02 20, 2008
There was a time when mortgage rates were…oh, yawn…pretty darn boring. Not any more. Oh the drama, the turbulence, the emotion!
Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports has an excellent post including some comic relief video explaining How Mortgage Rates Went From (Relative) Riches to Rags in 30 Days.
Dan’s post is a must read to understand how mortgage rates can go from 4.875% to 6.25% in a month’s time.
Hey…maybe I should change my post-photos to a frown when rates are going up?
About the Author: Rhonda Porter
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19 Responses to “30 Year Fixed over 6%”
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That was brilliant!
Thanks for the link.
I need to give Tim a “tip of the hat”…he pointed it out to me before I received my The Mortgage Reports subscription. I don’t know about you, Roger, I NEEDED the humor!
6.25% or thereabouts is a great rate. I remember my first mortgage rate at about 10%.
My first mortgage was FHA at 11%…and I was happy too!
Oh Jeez, I’m older than both of you. But no one is assuaged by hearing about other people’s double-digit rates of long ago.
6.25% is UP. End of story.
Mortgage bonds are currently up. We should see some improvement soon.
I am dizzy at the end of day with how up and down rates have been.
So if a have a variable that is 2 over the 1 year constant Treasury I should sit tight.. right?
Nell, I think you know the answer to that one. Do you want to trade 2.04 plus 2 (assuming 2 is your margin?) for a different rate?
How often does your rate adjust?
>6.25% or thereabouts is a great rate. I remember my first mortgage rate at about 10%.
Heh. Yeah. 10% is fine when you bought your house for $75K. Now you’re talking a $5K/month mortgage payment for an avg seattle home @ 10%. We could see rates of 10% soon.
I bought my first house for $69,900 in 1991. I think the rate was around 8.5% and it was much cheaper than renting – which was the main reason why I purchased.
Thank you Rhonda for being so excellent in your profession!
synthetik, you’re right. I bought my first house in 1989 for $60k and sold it the next year for $89k. It probably was not cheaper than renting for me and I had two room-mates in my old apartment…I just wanted my own house and did well selling it.
Historically rates are still low–that’s my point and I believe Tim’s too. 10% rates…I hope not. When I entered the mortgage biz, from title/escrow, rates were around 7%.
Leslie, Thank you!
How much do mortgage rates, in and of themselves, really impact the real-estate market? If 30 year conforming fixed loans were at 2.5%, would it be reasonable to see a significant pick up in the market?
Or is the availability of varying loan products more important than the rates? If Jumbo loans were at 7% and neg-am, no-doc, Alt-A, and greater than 80% LTV loans were simply not available would it really help to just have super-cheap conforming loans?
In other words, is it better to have extremely good rates on super-safe loans that only a handful of people qualify for, or to have higher-rates but wide availability of financing products that available to most prospective borrowers?
The reason I am focussed on this is because I am wondering whether the really important thing to be tracking right now is the availability of mortgage products, and how many people will qualify, rather than the rates. Just looking at the mortgage rates on a daily, or weekly, basis might not tell us what is happening.
Sniglet, I think rates do impact home buying on a certain level. People will still buy homes, however the rate will limit how much one qualifies for. The market has changed due to various products being shelved and guidelines tightening. I do write about the significant ones here.
The weekly rates give people an idea of the rate trends and it’s probably more important now than ever with how volatile the rates are. It has different uses for different people. For example, ARDELL has mentioned that she’ll use it as a tool to make sure her buyers are getting a fair deal with the lender they work with.
up up and awayyyyyyyyyy
They bounced around a wee bit today…we’ll see what tomorrow brings for “Friday’s Rates”.
[...] Although it’s great to buy Real estate when prices are falling, Mortgage rates will play a key role in determining what your true bottom line savings will be. Once again I’m going to refer to an article in the Rain City Guide that points you to a video that explains the recent excitement when were looking at Interest Rates. Rhonda has uncovered and article written by Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports and explains How Mortgage Rates Went From Riches to Rags in 30 Days. This does an excellent job of illustrating how fast interest rates can move in either direction and below I’ll map out the true impact to you as a home buyer. [...]
The Fed does not control interest rates and the Bond market has signaled enough…… the bond Boyz are saying ” we will not but treasuries unless we get a higher risk premium”. The prolific spending and constant bailouts are going to ratchet rates ever higher. Its amazing how many people believe the Fed can control mortgage rates. The question is – what if there is a auction to sell treasuries and no one shows up? Answer: rates go up……..
I expect higher longer term rates and our government will be forced to live within their means.
[...] Seriously – a 30 year was recently over 6% (up from 4.25% a month ago) and rates are changing every day. It’s not as dramatic, but you could also say that the 30 year rate is slightly higher than it was in December or lower than it was in August. (OK, so rates have dropped some since then). [...]