2017 Real Estate – Mortgage Outlook

2017 Real Estate Mortgage Outlook

As I’m writing this in mid December 2016 the Federal Reserve Board just hiked short term interest rates inthis past Wednesday. This quarter percent interest rate hike was pretty much universally anticipated, and so did not come as a surprise to the financial community.

What was a surprise to many was the fact that the Federal Reserve Board stated in their Wednesday meeting minutes that they anticipate to raise the interest rate at least three times during 2017.

We all know that rising interest rates are a damper on the real estate market. But, usually when rates first increase, like this Wednesday’s move after a while of inactivity or decreasing rates, the residential real estate activity actually picks up. Some attribute this uptick in the fact that it motivates many potential buyers who had been considering a purchase as well as new buyers entering the market to get their purchase closed as soon as possible so as to avoid any continuing rate hikes.

With the federal reserve actually stating that it anticipates three more rate hikes in 2017, I personally feel that in a month or two, when the real estate statistics are published, we are going to see a big increase in residential sales activity at least for December 2016 through March 2017.

So, right now interest rates for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage were averaging approximately 4.16%, this was up from 4.13% just last week. Now, if we go back a full year, around December 2015 the 30 year fixed rate home mortgage was averaging approximately 3.97%. When one looks at these rates in comparison, the recent Federal Reserve rate hike did not really have a dramatic affect in the 30 year fixed rate home mortgage rates. Read more