Mortgage Rates Stay Even
Ki Gray
August 08, 2009
The saying "No news is good news" might be applicable with the recent trend with mortgage rates. For the last 2 or 3 weeks for the most part rates have stayed pretty much unchanged. The reason why this could be considered good news is that the economy and stock market seem to be improving. There was a lot of discussion that an improving economy would lead to inflation and in turn higher interest rates. While I still think we are eventually headed to higher interest rates it's nice that at least that is not happening now. This week the 30 year mortgage rate dropped from 5.25 to 5.22. We also saw the 15 year rate drop from 4.69 to 4.63. The 5 year arm and 1 year arm both dropped .02 points this week (4.75 to 4.73 and 4.80 to 4.78 respectively). Below are rates for the last few weeks and from January 15th (6 months ago).
Aug 06, 2009
30-yr 5.22 15-yr 4.63 5-yr ARM 4.73 1-yr ARM 4.78
Jul 30, 2009
30-yr 5.25 15-yr 4.69 5-yr ARM 4.75 1-yr ARM 4.80
Jul 23, 2009
30-yr 5.20 15-yr 4.68 5-yr ARM 4.74 1-yr ARM 4.77
Jul 16, 2009
30-yr 5.14 15-yr 4.63 5-yr ARM 4.83 1-yr ARM 4.76
Jul 09, 2009
30-yr 5.20 15-yr 4.69 5-yr ARM 4.82 1-yr ARM 4.82
Jan 15, 2009
30-yr 4.96 15-yr 4.65 5-yr ARM 5.25 1-yr ARM 4.89
Looking above the 30 year mortgage rate has only moved from 5.14 to 5.25 in the last month which is remarkably stable considering the changes in the economy and the mortgage industry. Rates are still higher than what we saw six months ago but the change is not huge. To illustrate this let's look at changes in actual mortgage payments. Using our free mortgage calculator we took today's rates and translated them into a payment for a 200k loan. We did the same thing with rates from July 23 (two weeks ago) and rates from January 15th, 2009 (6 months ago).
Aug 06
30-yr $1100.69
15-yr $1543.3
5-yr ARM $1040.88
1-yr ARM $1046.91
Jul 23
30-yr $1098.22
15-yr $1548.44
5-yr ARM $1042.08
1-yr ARM $1045.7
Jan 15
30-yr $1068.75
15-yr $1545.36
5-yr ARM $1104.4
1-yr ARM $1060.23
From two weeks ago we are see a change of $2.47. This is pretty insignificant. When mortgage rates first started dropping we saw a difference of $35 from one week to the next running this same calculation. Compared to 6 months ago we see a rise of $31.94 or 2.98 percent. Considering the time frame this is still a relatively small change.
First off what is my advice for people looking for a home and a mortgage? I would still avoid arms. Nothing has changed basically arm's offer a small benefit right now but with most experts predicting higher rates in the future it makes sense to look in for a longer period of time with a 30 year fixed mortgage. What is our prediction moving forward? Long term I would expect rates to move up perhaps to 10 percent or more. In the short term I have been saying that it's hard to know. Know with the economy improving I would expect to see higher rates than what we are currently experiencing a month from now. That is assuming the economy doesn't start sliding backwards.
Ki lives and works in central Texas. His website covers the Austin Texas real estate market. It also has information on historical mortgage rates along with a mortgage rates widget
Aug 06, 2009
30-yr 5.22 15-yr 4.63 5-yr ARM 4.73 1-yr ARM 4.78
Jul 30, 2009
30-yr 5.25 15-yr 4.69 5-yr ARM 4.75 1-yr ARM 4.80
Jul 23, 2009
30-yr 5.20 15-yr 4.68 5-yr ARM 4.74 1-yr ARM 4.77
Jul 16, 2009
30-yr 5.14 15-yr 4.63 5-yr ARM 4.83 1-yr ARM 4.76
Jul 09, 2009
30-yr 5.20 15-yr 4.69 5-yr ARM 4.82 1-yr ARM 4.82
Jan 15, 2009
30-yr 4.96 15-yr 4.65 5-yr ARM 5.25 1-yr ARM 4.89
Looking above the 30 year mortgage rate has only moved from 5.14 to 5.25 in the last month which is remarkably stable considering the changes in the economy and the mortgage industry. Rates are still higher than what we saw six months ago but the change is not huge. To illustrate this let's look at changes in actual mortgage payments. Using our free mortgage calculator we took today's rates and translated them into a payment for a 200k loan. We did the same thing with rates from July 23 (two weeks ago) and rates from January 15th, 2009 (6 months ago).
Aug 06
30-yr $1100.69
15-yr $1543.3
5-yr ARM $1040.88
1-yr ARM $1046.91
Jul 23
30-yr $1098.22
15-yr $1548.44
5-yr ARM $1042.08
1-yr ARM $1045.7
Jan 15
30-yr $1068.75
15-yr $1545.36
5-yr ARM $1104.4
1-yr ARM $1060.23
From two weeks ago we are see a change of $2.47. This is pretty insignificant. When mortgage rates first started dropping we saw a difference of $35 from one week to the next running this same calculation. Compared to 6 months ago we see a rise of $31.94 or 2.98 percent. Considering the time frame this is still a relatively small change.
First off what is my advice for people looking for a home and a mortgage? I would still avoid arms. Nothing has changed basically arm's offer a small benefit right now but with most experts predicting higher rates in the future it makes sense to look in for a longer period of time with a 30 year fixed mortgage. What is our prediction moving forward? Long term I would expect rates to move up perhaps to 10 percent or more. In the short term I have been saying that it's hard to know. Know with the economy improving I would expect to see higher rates than what we are currently experiencing a month from now. That is assuming the economy doesn't start sliding backwards.
Ki lives and works in central Texas. His website covers the Austin Texas real estate market. It also has information on historical mortgage rates along with a mortgage rates widget
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