Where are mortgage rates heading?

This week we want to look at mortgage rates and where we’re at with them currently, as well as what we might expect to see happen with them coming up.

In 2023 looking at current numbers, the average household nationwide is paying 28 percent of their income to their mortgage.

US Department of housing and urban development found the national average household income is currently $96,300 and the average price of a house sold this year was $406,700. So based on a 20 percent down payment and the lovely 7.42 percent mortgage rate, the average household in the US right now is paying $2,257 a month for their house.

For a little perspective, mortgage rates last year were 5.63 at this time, and the average payment was 25 percent of the nationwide household income.

The average income number last year was $900,000  and the average home sold at $399,200 numbers were a little lower all around.

Across the nation we are still seeing a shortage of homes for sale, and the prices of available listings haven’t dropped much as the mortgage rate has gone up.

Economists are forecasting fall might bring some good news in the form of a cool off of prices and a lowering of rates. As we move towards the end of the year, the Fed is expected to end the rate increases. Experts are speculating because homes are still so expensive and rates are so high buyers will peace out and wait for a kinder market, possibly bringing home prices down to a slightly more affordable level.

The all omniscient “speculating experts” all point to inflation and what happens with the Fed and the central bank as the key factors going forward to the end of the year. The Fed isn’t literally running the show with fixed mortgage rates, but the central bank’s set policy rates absolutely inform the direction mortgage rates will head.

It’s possible going forward rates will step down from the two decade record high they’ve climbed to, and it’s possible that home prices will dip a tad. Although inventory will remain low, so that price decrease won’t be anything to write home about.

To wrap it up, things might kind a, sort of get a little more doable for the buyers market maybe, possibly. We could see an economic climate that puts rates back down towards 6.5. And that would of course, be awesome. What happens with the Feds battle with inflation and the temperature of the economy through the holidays can’t be predicted with any real certainty.

But you can be certain your favorite Monday Team agent will give you all her hard earned knowledge on what is or isn’t a good move whether you are buying or selling this fall. There are plenty of hungry buyers out there and plenty of reasons why people gotta list right now, irregardless of what the market looks like. 

Life moves forward amongst all types of mortgage rates, people move and homes are bought and sold, the Monday Team is here to make it all pan out for ya with a fantastic outcome and a dream home at the end of the tunnel!