According to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, interest rates for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage have hovered around 4% all year and are still near record lows.
The interest rate you secure when buying a home not only greatly impacts your monthly housing costs, but also impacts your purchasing power.
Purchasing power, simply put, is the amount of home you can afford to buy for the budget you have available to spend. As rates increase, the price of the house you can afford will decrease if you plan to stay within a certain monthly housing budget.
The chart to the right shows the impact rising interest rates would
have if you planned to purchase a home within the national median price range, and planned to keep your principal and interest
payments between $1,850-$1,900
a month.
With each quarter of a percent increase in interest rate, the value of the home you can afford decreases by 2.5% (in this example, $10,000). Experts predict that mortgage rates will be closer to 5% by this time next year.
Act now to get the most house for your hard-earned money.
