Santa Barbara Real Estate

Mortgage Rates & the Housing Market

We are in one of the most foundationally strong housing markets of our lifetime because homeowners are going to fight to keep their current mortgage rate and they have a tremendous amount of equity. This is yet another reason things are fundamentally different than in 2008. We may be in one of the strongest Real Estate Markets in a long time. When you look at the numbers today, the one thing that stands out is the strength of this housing market. Here are two fundamentals that prove this point.

Current Rate on Existing Mortgages

Homeowners with such good mortgage rates are going to work as hard as they can to keep that mortgage and stay in their homes. That’s because they can’t go out and buy another house, or even rent an apartment, and pay what they do today. Their current mortgage payment is more affordable. Even if they were to downsize, with today’s higher mortgage rates, it could cost more.

Here’s why this gives the housing market such a solid foundation today. Having so many homeowners with such low mortgage rates helps us avoid a crisis with a flood of foreclosures coming to market.

Americans are Sitting on a Tremendous Amount of Equity

But this time, things are different because homeowners have built up so much equity over the past few years alone. And, when homeowners have that much equity, it helps us avoid another wave of distressed properties coming onto the market as we saw during the crash. It also creates an extremely strong foundation for today’s housing market.

How’s The Market?

We are in one of the most foundationally strong housing markets of our lifetime because homeowners are going to fight to keep their current mortgage rate and they have a tremendous amount of equity.

MORTGAGE RATES JUNE 17, 2023

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Mark Danforth Lomas

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