Seattle Mortgage Rates Today , April 24, 2009
Seattle Mortgage Rates Today, April 24, 2009:
Interest rates remained quiet this week; the economic news will be announced next week.
First time home buyers are starting to make offers as prices remain and their buying power is stretched further with low interest rates. An added bonus for first time home buyers is the first time home buyer tax credit. The average time a home listed around $300,000 is close to 4 months. At 4 months in certain areas is considered a seller’s market. This is huge for our local economy!!!
The trend in 2003: refinances were hot then first time buyers came into the market to buy while prices were low and coupled with low interest rates. We saw multiple offers and the health of the housing industry improve. We are slowly seeing this trend repeat today in our local market.
As first time buyers step in and buy, a shift in ownership comes to play. As serious sellers begin to see the improvement in their community they will in turn see the opporunity to buy up and slowly move the upper markets. Bank of America who had left wholesale/brokerage business is re-emerging as a force on 4/27/09 to compete with Chase who will only operate as a retail mortgage company through their brick and mortar channels. ( we will expand more on this on a new posting coming soon)
Why this may be so impactful, Jumbo loans may begin to see lending to a market that had been stagnant for over 18 months. Homes above $700,000 across the country have not been able to sell because financing has not been supported by banks. Rates above 7.00% for a jumbo loan? Buyers are turned off because conforming loans are all below 5%. In normal lending times conforming and jumbo rates are about .25% to .375% in difference. Currently it is more than 1.00%.
Unemployment numbers will be released again the first week of May, question being will Wall Street once again shrug off these numbers. If this is the case, Wall Street may have confidence in the financial markets. Business earnings are close to meeting expectations and many predicted the end Q2 of 2009, the economy would be moving forward or at least bouncing off the bottom. Keep your ears open as next week is a critical economic news release.