Rates Remain Low, but Washington Home Prices Continue to Rise
As we entered May, mortgage rates inched slightly lower. This is happening in spite of activity in the bond markets that generally drive mortgage rates. In part, this is probably due to the fact that lenders hadn’t fully adjusted their rate sheets to reflect last Friday’s gains. We may therefore expect to see slightly higher rates as the week continues. It would seem that the market is fairly stable, though, and we can likely look forward to another month of low interest rates.
Meanwhile, though mortgage rates remain attractively low across the country, some areas are experiencing such great increases in home prices that homebuyers are actually paying more each month than they were back in the end of 2015. The problem has been most pronounced here in Washington, where the monthly principal and interest payments are averaging almost $15 higher for median-range homes, compared to December. Oregon and Colorado have been experiencing similar problems, while the rest of the country has been enjoying an average monthly payment decrease of about $20.
