No small part is played by the great bargain in home mortgage rates available anywhere in the country.
The main problem is a narrowing spread between home mortgage rates the bank collects and deposit rates it pays.
Already, the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has brought down prime home mortgage rates from 6.5% to below 6%.
Unfortunately, hardly more than a week after the Fed halted the program, giant mortgage provider Freddie Mac reports that 30-year home mortgage rates have jumped to 5.21%, up from 5.08% the previous week, and 4.71% in December.
Anybody who owns a home knows that mortgage rates have dropped significantly and because of that, refinancing their home makes a lot of sense.
So far this year, sales of existing homes have held up, as have other indicators of demand such as mortgage applications for home purchase, and mortgage rates remain relatively low.
The higher demand for housing pushes home prices up despite the higher mortgage rates.
New home construction and home equity extraction were logical when mortgage rates were particularly low.
Steady job growth, near record-low mortgage rates and rising home values have encouraged more people to buy.
Near record low mortgage rates and rising home sales are encouraging home-builders.
Some commenters suggested that home prices would fall after mortgage interest rates rose, adding further difficulties to those who might otherwise want to sell their homes and move.
With an eye toward high home-vacancy rates or rising mortgage delinquencies in these cities, the bankers projected values there would drop 4% to 12% in the coming 12 months.
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Home prices are simply too attractive and mortgage rates too low for potential buyers to ignore.
The 0% down and below-market mortgage interest rates temporarily sent home prices to the moon.
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On average. first-time buyers still need to find a deposit of 20% of a home's value, but mortgage interest rates have dropped to very low levels.
Millions of Americans will find it more attractive to work hard and save for a home now that prices are down and mortgage rates are below 5%.
Average property prices in China declined for the second straight month in April, on an annual basis, after Beijing imposed a series of tightening measures, such as limits on home purchases and higher mortgage and down payment rates.
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For example, existing-home sales remained strong in May, likely largely due to the extension of the Federal home buyer tax credit program, in addition to the stabilization of home prices nationwide along with the lowest mortgage rates in history.
Due to a three-month drop in the median price of a single-family home as well as a continued decline of long-term interest rates (i.e. mortgage rates), the affordability of a single-family home has spiked back up to a level only briefly seen at the tail end of the financial crisis.
Mortgage rates are low, and home prices are within reach in many areas of the country.
The one time in which home prices were falling was a time when mortgage rates were also falling.
Record low mortgage rates drove year over year home price gains in the US for the first time since the financial crisis surfaced in 2007.
New housing starts are up 5% year-to-date thanks to low mortgage rates, but publicly traded home builders are expected to see 20% revenue growth for 2002, with earnings up 21%.
The government has encouraged banks to offer lower mortgage rates for first-time home buyers, called on developers to increase construction of smaller and cheaper apartments, and is tolerating moves by some cash-hungry municipal and provincial governments to loosen property restrictions at the local level.
The lowest mortgage rates in decades are spurring more home purchases and refinancing.
It turns out that in every case, home prices rose over the period in which mortgage interest rates are rising.
They have no memory of the decades when home prices rose modestly but steadily, or when mortgage rates were 7%, or up to 10%.
Raiffeisen's parent bank, Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich, for example, is one of the biggest mortgage lenders in Austria, where home-loan rates are often tied to Euribor.
This morning the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications for home purchases sank to a 13-year low last week in spite of near record low mortgage rates.
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