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U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

reuters.com

141–150 of 297 posts

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#141
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nuance that interest changes over the period of the loan. In or so 2007 some people took 5% Euribor + margin loans, but only some years after it was negative. And since negative euribor was not written to contracs some paid less interest than was margin.

Not typical in the US where many/most? mortgages are fixed rate for the entire 30 years

My bad, I'm from Europe. I think here is vice versa.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#142

There’s a ticking clock right now for 5/1 ARM. If rates stay elevated then many are going to be out of a home.

Sure, but who was opting for an ARM in the last 5 years?

I know this article is about the US, but in the UK, 30 year fixes are very rare nowadays. Most people are on 2 to 5 year fixes which revert to adjustable or trackers. The norm here is to refinance to a new fix every few years.

If rates were to go up to 8%+, a lot of homeowners here would be unable to meet their repayments. The basis of the stress testing we've been doing since 2014 was only whether people could afford their mortgage if rates rose by 3%.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the people I speak to who locked in Current renters will have lower potential to save on a monthly basis, only to get 30-40% off on their first home with a >7% interest rate. If you sum the lost savings from rent plus the additional interest payment, it is uncertain whether that is the best strategy. That is also assuming real estate prices in certain regions wont hold stronger value, which they probably will…

Not selling doesn't magically make your house keep it's market value. As long as there's someone in the vicinity selling at a lower price your house would lose value either way. And there's always someone selling.

But no harm comes to me if my house value drops considerably if I'm not selling it. I keep on paying the same mortgage payment as before and I keep on living in my house. If the mortgage payment was worth it before, then it is worth it after.

The risk here is a home's value dropping a lot, putting somebody underwater, and then life circumstances forcing them to sell. That's bad. But for the rest of us that happily make our mortgage payments it doesn't mean a thing if the spam emails from Zillow show a new number.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#144

There’s a ticking clock right now for 5/1 ARM. If rates stay elevated then many are going to be out of a home.

We should outlaw ARM for most people. It should only be for "accredited borrows" like we do for investing. People who don't really understand the risks get screwed and it creates unnecessary bubbles.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate buyers are one of the many exacerbating factors, and I think that’s what most are saying when they say corporate home buying is a problem. In other words, there aren’t enough homes and corporations sitting on some percentage of them is making the situation that much worse.

I don't understand how a corporate purchaser is worse than any other investor; I live in an area with almost only single family homes, and a huge fraction of them are investor owned and rented out. The small time land lords have a huge variance in how well they behave, but I'm not sure why corporate landlords are worse.

I think the idea is that corporate owners are helping keep prices propped up because they’re much less sensitive to vacancy. They can let a house sit unoccupied for much longer before dropping the price to get someone in compared to a small time landlord. Smalltimers don’t usually have the capital available to do that and will either need to drop prices to get someone in the house or sell the house.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#146
Many people I know, cashed out big on their stocks/ crypto. They may not be in the bucket of foreclosure unless they make seriously dubious financial choices and ruin their worth.

They will hold the reins on their houses and take some losses if need be, but ride it coolly till the end...

My 2C.

Thanks

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#147
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A credit union I used for my house which had competitive rates has very good rate for new auto loans. It is about 4.09% for 4-5 years.

I'm sorry are you saying 4.09% is a good rate? Anything 2% or lower is a good rate, my house was 4% back in 2019.

In the context of banking and financing for the entirety of human history, 4.09% is fantastic, outstanding, amazing.

In the context of the last four years it is not. It is "merely" good.

I do not consider the last four years to be the foundation on which to start building assumptions.

Even in the context of the last four years, for auto loans 4.09% is only above average for about six of the last 48 months (Sept 2021 - Feb 2022).

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you think people are going to pay mortgages they are massively underwater on? Yes? Why wouldn't you? It seems pretty short-sighted to just put your arms in the air, give up, get foreclosed on, lose your home, and have your credit be absolutely wrecked for the next 7 years. Just keep making your payments and ride it out. The market will eventually recover. I think the only reason to give up is if you fell for the sc…

Concur. As a relatively new first-time homeowner (a year), do you know whether a mortgage lender requires higher or additional insurance coverage for an underwater property?

I don't think so. The time for requirements is when the loan is originated. I think it's typical to require mortgage insurance when the loan is more than 80% of the value, and it's very uncommon to loan more than 95% of the value.

If the loan goes underwater later, usually because of market conditions, maybe because of creative loan features, then the lender has no leverage to require anything.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you think people are going to pay mortgages they are massively underwater on? Yes? Why wouldn't you? It seems pretty short-sighted to just put your arms in the air, give up, get foreclosed on, lose your home, and have your credit be absolutely wrecked for the next 7 years. Just keep making your payments and ride it out. The market will eventually recover. I think the only reason to give up is if you fell for the sc…

Concur. As a relatively new first-time homeowner (a year), do you know whether a mortgage lender requires higher or additional insurance coverage for an underwater property?

No. Why would they?

You are required to have insurance when you have a loan on a property. The insurance rates could actually drop due to lower cost to replace your house.

Underwater property just means you owe more than it is worth. However, if your interest rate is low, you might be paying less than someone who is not underwater.

Re: U.S. mortgage interest rates jump to 7.16%, highest since 2001

#150
post #116

How this effects housing prices: Housing prices are determined largely by what payments people can manage to make. At 3.22% (the approximate rate on Jan 1 2022) A $2000 payment can finance $462,000. At 7.7% (what google says is the current average rate) it would only finance about $280,000. At 12% (my personal guess at where rates will peak in about 18 months before quickly returning to around 7% for several years af…

> At 12% (my personal guess at where rates will peak in about 18 months before quickly returning to around 7% for several years after that) it will finance $195,000. Would you share some of the thought process for how you arrived at that guess? This is not at all my area and while I can understand how someone might guess "rates will continue to rise for at least a while longer" I don't really have an understanding of…

The interest rate increases so far have not had any effect on inflation. This makes sense, the inflation is being caused by money that has already been injected into the market and the normal price corrections that an increased interest rate would normally cause is ironically causing losses to the fed itself as it bought basically the entire corporate bond market up during covid. I expect the fed to keep raising rates into an unresponsive market, getting more and more desperate.

Secondly, we've seen rates higher than 12% during periods of much less inflation and a greater ability for the fed to curb inflation via interest rate increases (specifically the early '80s).

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