Interest rates are now impacting home sales

Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent

Interest rates are now impacting home sales

It was only a matter of time that interest rates would impact the housing market.

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Interest rates are now impacting home sales

Mortgage rates didn’t move much last week, and for the second week in a row, neither did mortgage demand. Potential buyers are handcuffed by exorbitant costs and low supply, and current homeowners have little to no incentive to refinance at today’s high rates.

Total mortgage application volume last week was essentially flat, dropping 0.6% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

Applications to refinance a home loan fell 2% for the week and were 5% lower than the same week one year ago. Rates have been hovering around 7% for the past few months, and close to 90% of current borrowers have mortgages with rates below 6%.

Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 0.1% from one week earlier and were 13% lower than the year-earlier week. Purchase demand now is about half of what it was in March 2020, before the Federal Reserve dropped rates to zero, igniting a massive homebuying boom, which wiped out already low supply. With rates now double what they were back then, sellers are stuck in place, and buyers can afford far less.

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Interest rates are now impacting home sales

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