Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
Mortgages are selling like ice cubes in Antarctica
A Boston condo loan, anyone? Please.
That cold sales pitch is because mortgages are selling like ice cubes in Antarctica, and the numbers seem to get worse every day.
Nationally applications for home loans fell another 2 percent last week to their lowest level since 2000, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Rates are not actually high by historical standards; the average 30-year, fixed-rate loan was 5.47 percent Tuesday, according to BankRate. But that is a lot higher than below 3 percent, where they spent most of last year.
The increase, prompted by Federal Reserve actions to arrest inflation, has sidelined some buyers and virtually shut down refinancing. Residential refi activity also fell to a low not seen since 2000, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.
Some would-be sellers are not listing their homes because they dread the prospect of buying one in this market, while others don’t because in the work-from-home era they can switch jobs without having to uproot their families
