Safe Harbor Scramble Drops Rates
Mortgage lenders are anticipating as much as a full point increase in interest rates over the next month.
What’s less clear: whether the transition will be smooth (weekly, incremental bumps of say, .25%) or a more abrupt re-pricing.
I’ve certainly heard this from lenders before ” like, quarterly for the last 3-4 years.
However, this time the chorus is both louder and more unanimous.
There’s also a consensus about timetable (imminent, i.e., days to weeks vs. “sometime soon”) and likely magnitude (the aforementioned full one point increase).
So, what supposed maven wrote the above, and when?
Yours truly, literally 8 days ago. See, “Debt Ceiling Debate and the Housing Market.”
What’s happened since then?
The stock market rout has everyone racing for (perceived) safe harbors, driving down interest rates.
As a direct byproduct, mortgage interest rates just touched their low for the year: an average of 4.38% nationally for a 30 year mortgage.
