I’m sure many of you have heard by now that 30-year fixed mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest in 37 years. The national average rate hovers around 5.19% and locally sits a little lower at 5.15%.
What does this mean, you ask? Well, two things, it’s a great time to buy and it may be a great time to refinance depending on what rate you locked in at the time of the purchase of your current home.
“The decline [in 30-year fixed-rate mortgages] was supported by the Federal Reserveannouncement on December 16th, when it cut the federal funds target to a record low and stated it stood ready to expand its purchases of mortgage-related assets as conditions warrant,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. The hope is that consumers will make the decision to purchase there by helping to decrease the amount of homes that are currently on the market, namely short sales and pre-foreclosures.
There are rumors floating around that the rates will dip even lower with the beginning of the new year, but nothing is ever a sure thing. The best thing to do is not wait around. The future is unpredictable especially in our current situation so get out there and start looking!