Tag Archives: Affordability

Despite the Fed continuing to raise interest rates, overall mortgage refinance application volume rose 10% week-over-week, hitting levels last seen in September of 2022.

Freddie Mac reports that mortgage rates slid this week after two consecutive weeks of gains, amid both the failure of yet another bank and another rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

Due to persistently high home prices, new homebuyers may shell out costly amounts for their mortgage payments, as a new study from LendingTree reveals that the average nationwide payment on a new mortgage has reached $2,317 a month.

Rachel Richardson of Rent. examines several major market trends that impact a property’s day-to-day operations, and what to do about them. 

As interest rates remain high, a new study from Zillow has found that 15% more borrowers purchased mortgage points in 2022 than 2021, and continue to do so as interest rates hover around 6%.

After a five-week string of declining rates, mortgage rates rose modestly for the second consecutive week, on the eve of the GSE’s enacting changes to loan-level price adjustments geared toward tackling housing affordability challenges nationwide.

According to Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research Group expectations for Q1, the increase in the sales pace from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023 revealed that homebuying demand remains buoyant and was unexpectedly responsive to small declines in mortgage rates.

“Rental cost growth relaxed again in February but is still increasing nationwide year-over-year,” said Molly Boesel, Principal Economist at CoreLogic. “Less-expensive metros have emerged as those with the highest appreciating rental costs, as tenants contend with elevated rents and inflation."

While overall sales declined 22% from a year ago, existing-home sales dipped lower in March after month-over-month sales declined in three out of four major U.S. regions, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors.

“While the NFCI Credit index indicated that credit tightened in March, which reduced housing market potential, the credit tightening was modest and far from recent pandemic lows, and certainly nothing like the Great Financial Crisis period,” said Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American.