House loan interest rates are rising. If you’re like millions of other marker-watchers, waiting for rates to hit bottom: guess what? They did that several weeks ago. Now they are rising. Act now, before rates rise beyond your desired monthly payments for a new house construction loan.
30 year fixed rate mortgage rates rose to 4.61% this week (last week of June, 2013). Last week they were at 4.12%, according to Bankrate.com’s survey of national lenders. About a year ago, the loan average was 3.89%. A month ago it was 3.99%. Only about 2 months ago it was at 3.6%. Feel bad that you missed the bottom rates? The good news is that rates are still at historic lows. Move forward now with your plans to have a new house designed and built for you. If you continues to wait, it appears rates will likely continue to rise. We appear to be entering a classic bell-curve on a graph and the line is moving up as the economy improves. Don’t miss the great rates. Act now. Rates have increased more than an entire percentage point in only the last 7 weeks.
Take a good look at the right tail-end of this Freddie-Mac chart of 30 year fixed rates since 2008: notice that the right side of the graph, instead of continuing the downward trend that has been in motion since the 3rd quarter of 2008, is now turning higher.
15 year rates have increased as well: from 3.3% last week to 3.73% this week. Other rates with other terms have also risen comparably, including ARMs (which have fallen into less favor with homeowners due to the issues involved with possible increased rates and balloon payments).
Reasons for this new rising rate trend appear connected to the Federal Reserve’s new decision to curtail the $85 Billion per month mortgage backed securities buying that has in part been responsible for keeping new mortgage interest rates lower than normal. Ben Bernanke informed the public, at the Open Market Committee meeting last week, that the Fed intends to slow its bond purchases and end the program in mid 2014, if the economy continues to improve in their estimation. Interests rates exhibited an instantaneous upward reaction to this news. The Stock Market dropped by 3 digits after hearing the Federal Reserve’s plans.
Historically, house mortgage interest rates are still at very low rates. BUT THIS MAY NOT REMAIN THE CASE. Remember paying 12% to 16% and more back in the mid 1980s? Don’t miss this opportunity. You are being informed that you are at a unique point in the history of mortgage rates and are being warned that all signs are pointing to a raising rate trend.
So what to do? Contact your Architect now and ask them to begin designing your new house. Lock in your mortgage rate and get your new house project underway. Don’t wait for higher rates later.
Residential Architect: Rand@HomeArchitects.com www.HomeArchitects.com