00:00 Brad
Mortgage rates for the week ending March 27th are out. Yahoo Finance’s Claire Boston joins me now with the numbers. Hey Claire.
00:07 Claire Boston
Hi Brad. So this week, the 30-year mortgage rate is at 6.65%, that is basically flat from 6.67% last week. And 15-year mortgage rates, they rose slightly to 5.89%, up from 5.83% last week. And this is the third straight week where we have mortgage rates kind of stuck at this 6.7% space. Um, that’s a pretty high rate and it is probably keeping some home buyers sidelined at the moments. You know, that being said, stability can also be really good as we head into this spring home buying season. You know, it basically says there is not a lot of evidence that you should wait for mortgage rates to go lower. We seem stuck in this high, you know, 6.7% space, at least for right now.
00:59 Brad
Seems like Freddie Mac’s chief economist is also noting an uptick in the purchase applications, really kind of pairing directly to what you were mentioning with some of the recent mortgage rate stability and benefiting potential buyers this spring. All that in mind, we got a new report out from Redfin showing monthly housing payments in all-time high in March. So what’s behind the increase there?
01:18 Claire Boston
That’s right. So a lot of what we are seeing with this Redfin report, um that the average mortgage payment is now $2,800 per month, um is because those rates are high. And we still have housing prices near all-time highs. And you know, we talk a lot about how sidelined some people who want to get into this market are. And it’s just because, you know, $2,800 is a huge payment for a lot of people. It’s up 5.3% in the past year. And um, you know, it’s a little unclear how many more buyers that may be on the sidelines are going to be able to come off if mortgage rates don’t go lower.
02:00 Brad
All right, just to reiterate the numbers, 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaging 6.65% as of March 27th. 15-year fixed rate mortgage 5.89%. Claire Boston, thanks so much.
02:12 Claire Boston
Thank you.
