Lower Interest Rates vs. Economic Uncertainty How will coronavirus affect the housing market? The answer likely depends on two questions: 1) which Buyers?; and 2) which segment(s) of the housing market — specifically, which price points? So, at the lower end of the market, especially in the Twin Cities, there remains an acute shortage of...Read More
WSJ: “Average Rate on a 30-year, Fixed-Rate Mortgage was 3.75% Last Week, Down from 4.94% in November” Sooner or later, industry mavens predicting higher mortgage rates will be right. But not this year. From a peak of almost 5% late last Fall, rates fell to 3.75% last week. Count that the 4th (7th? 9th?) year...Read More
Housing Market Finance, Then & Now “If you don’t have a job — or are afraid of losing one — it doesn’t matter how low interest rates are.” –Ross Kaplan Long before there was a housing bubble (seemingly, 3 lifetimes ago), there was a credit bubble. As a result, seemingly anyone who could complete a...Read More
Flight to Safety No, I don’t think a nuclear conflagration would be good for the U.S. housing market (or anything else). And, there’s no denying that ongoing North Korea – U.S. saber-rattling may have a chilling effect on nervous home Buyers. But, in the meantime, one of the predictable side effects of major geopolitical uncertainty...Read More
Post-Election Aftermath: Stock Market Boom, Bond Market Bust Overshadowed by all the political fallout the last week is the election’s effect on interest rates: up, quickly. According to Edina Mortgage’s Steve Mohabir, subsequent to the election, interest rates for a 30-year mortgage for well-qualified borrowers jumped a huge (“Yuge??“) 50 basis points, from 3.5% to over...Read More
When Government Gives You a Free Subsidized Lunch . . . Take It! “America’s housing system was at the centre of the last crisis. It has still not been properly reformed.” —The Economist, “Nightmare on Main Street: the Horror Underlying America’s Housing Market“; August 20th -26th 2016. If you don’t want something (else) keeping you...Read More
