In the last year, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has jumped from 3.69% to 6.7%, according to Freddie Mac. “It just feels like the middle class is getting pushed out,” said Erin Piedmont, a professor of social studies.
First, they had to battle the pandemic-induced buying frenzy. Now, potential home buyers are struggling with sky-high mortgage rates.
They include once-pandemic boomtowns of Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tampa and Texas. A year ago, only 12.1% of home buyers were backing out of deals. For a first-time buyer like him, it was “nerve-wracking,” Kankariya said, “because this is the biggest purchase you’re gonna make,” let alone a decision to make in 24 hours.
But now that the market is cooling off, rates are taking off instead. “We all kind of saw the writing on the wall in terms of the increase in mortgage rates,” Kankariya said, but “I don’t think we had any real appreciation for how drastically they would go up.” A recent weekend spent house hunting was also a bust. They saw a charming single-family home which despite needing to be remodeled, looked promising. But the realtor who was showing them the house said that a potential buyer was looking at the property with the intention to turn it into an Airbnb ABNB, -2.72%.
Home buyers pressured to move fast as rates fluctuate With mortgage rates rising, and the 30-year briefly touching 7%, home ownership has become a lot more expensive in 2022. And rates won’t drop “until it is clear the Fed has ended its rate hikes, and that’s unlikely until well after next year’s spring home selling season,” Zandi added.Lewis and his wife, both former army veterans, are planning to sell his current home in the Los Angeles suburbs to relocate to Seattle.
The Piedmonts sold their home in Florence, Ala. for $420,000. They had just refinanced their home for a 2.8% rate, which was “kind of a dream,” she said. They had paid $317,000 for it.
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