Mortgage rates continued their precipitous climb with the 30-year fixed jumping over 20 basis points in a week, according to the Freddie Mac weekly survey…(Freddie Mac)
- 30-YR FIXED average rate jumped 23 basis points to 3.92%, this is 111 basis points higher than one year ago.
- 15-YR FIXED average rate jumped 22 basis points to 3.15%, this is 94 basis points higher than one year ago.
NOTE: This is the highest rate since May 30th, 2019 when the average rate was 3.99%% and the 15-year was 3.46%.
Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist, noted this is not good news for first-time homebuyers…
- “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is nearing four percent, reaching highs we have not seen since May 2019. As rates and house prices rise, affordability has become a substantial hurdle for potential homebuyers, especially as inflation threatens to place a strain on consumer budgets.”
REMINDER: The Mortgage Bankers Association survey has rates above 4% already…
- The average contract rate on a 30-year fixed jumped a whopping 22 basis points to 4.05% which is 107 basis points higher than one year ago.
NOTE: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said bringing down inflation may require the central bank to overshoot a neutral target interest rate, which he sees as about 2%…(Bloomberg)
- “If you wanted to put downward pressure on inflation, you’d actually have to get to neutral — go beyond neutral,” Bullard said at an event by hosted by Columbia University and SGH Macro Advisers in New York on Thursday. “And I think that’s a major concern of mine — we’re not really in a position to do that right now, but we have to get in a position to do that” in case inflation doesn’t moderate as expected, he said.