A Huge Number of Homeowners Have Mortgage Rates Too Good to Give Up
A Huge Number of Homeowners Have Mortgage Rates Too Good to Give Up
On a scale not seen in decades, many Americans are stuck in homes they would rather leave.
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Yup. Bought at the end of 2019, refinanced in late 2020. Currently have a 15 year mortgage at a fixed 2.1% APR. I literally cannot afford to give this up.
It's less that I want to leave this house, specifically, and more that I just want out of this state. For multiple reasons unrelated to my good mortgage deal, I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future.
On the bright side, I never thought I'd actually own a house so I'll take the win.
Ditto. 2.6%. Car loan at 3.2%. Can’t afford a new car, can’t afford to move these days. Yeah, it’s hard to bitch when you’re glad to have a home, but it’s a figurative “house arrest” when market forces trap you.
Yep, 2.7% here. Bought in summer 2020. I really like the house, but the property is challenging as its a big slope. I didn't realize all the challenges in dealing with that. However, it's starting to grow on me and I'm still getting what I want out of my land its... just... more work and money. I got such a good deal it doesn't make sense to leave.
Car loan at 3.2%…
I’m so envious, I’m buying a car rn and I’ll be lucky to get 9% or 10%
NFCU. Has the best auto loan rates I've seen or heard of anywhere right now. I'm not sure if you're eligible, but worth looking in to.
https://www.navyfederal.org/loans-cards/auto-loans/auto-rates.html
10%?!
Holy shit.
Yeah, and that’s with a good (mid 700s) credit score.
I had a place try and reel me in at 14% the other day and I would have laughed if I wasn’t so taken aback. Like, they are closer to the maximum rate than the average…
I might just be unlucky with the dealers I have been to. Unfortunately the ones I’ve heard good things about only have cars out of my budget.
Brutal, and on top all the dealer premiums and markups.
a fellow texan?
WV. Not worse, just differently bad.
Don't you have to renew it every 5 years?
Nope, US has 15 and 30 year fixed rates available. You can get an arm that has a variable rate, but they've been un popular after 2008, and with the low interest rates not worth it.
Holy shit. We don't have that in Canada. I wish we did. A lot of people have lost their homes due to raising interest rates as they have to renew every 5 years or so. Real estate in Canada is so fucked up.
The US is unique in the 30 year fixed rate. It’s great if you have one, but it can have some externalities and effects like what we see here.
Wow! I did not know that! You essentially refinance your home every 5 years? How does that work? With new closing costs and everything?
Not who you were talking to, but no, the closing costs are one time only. You basically just renew or get a new mortgage somewhere else. Ours is coming up in October, we’re a bit worried but hopeful it won’t be too bad. We’ve got wiggle room as we got a great deal on our house but it’s still going to suck. I have seen a 10 year fixed, might go for that if we can get a good enough rate.
What a scam. Forcing you into new higher interest rates.
i would have killed for that. got a 1.8% 20 year morgatge in 2021, would have loved to lock in at that.
I haven’t heard of having to renew mortgage interest rates. A fixed interest rate should be good for the life of the loan.
I’m at 2.875% on a 25-year loan. I never plan on moving.
Depends on where you live. Odds are most people reading this are in the US or Canada where fixed interest rates for life of the loan is common, though you can get an ARM. However in many other countries you cannot get those loans, and those people have to renew every few years.
Not Canada. Highest I’ve seen is 10 year, most of the time it’s 5.
I stand corrected.
I wish we had a 30 year! That would be amazing in some ways. I have to renew this year and I’m not looking forward to it.
15 and 30 year fixed mortgages is pretty unique to the US.
That’s not a thing in the US like it is in Canada. I can keep my sub 3% mortgage for the 25 years I have left on it.
There are Adjustable Rate Mortgages in the US too. My sister-in-law lost her house a while back where her rate went up. I think they lock you in at a low rate for the first 5 years and then they go up. It sounds like a good idea if you're confident that rates are going to stay low and your home will increase in value making it easy to refinance. But in reality, no one can predict the market 5 years out, so I wouldn't recommend it.
No who told you that? If your interest is fixed you don't fuck with that
In the UK it's quite unusual to have a fixed rate mortgage that goes that long. Normally you'd get a decent rate for 2-5 years, at which point the rate changes to whatever the current default is, and you get the opportunity to fix for another few years
Well mine isn't it fix 30 years. You can get one of those our a floating rate but goddamm I was told to only get a fixed 30 year mortgage. Correct that most people do refinance in 5 years but in today's market no fucking way.
Somehow I think that would be great for un-fucking our "home investment" slave system in the US where landlords buy all these homes on credit, convert them to multifamily, and then use the labor of renters indefinitely while allowing the homes to get worse and worse.
It would solve that one problem, but would create so many more and much larger problems.
Of course, anything in a bubble without considering how to mitigate effects is going to be a problem. If it was just a single change necessary it would have already been done.
Canada. Different rules here. I thought it was the same all across the world.
In USA, refinance happens only when consumer wants to. Usually to get a better rate or cash in on some equity I think.
In Canada, the mortgage has to be renewed every 5 years or less depending on your contract. They'll never let you have a 30 years mortgage on a 2% interest rate the whole time.
So what happens if you go to renew and they’re like “screw you, 8%”, and you can’t afford that increase? Do they just foreclose your house?
Well if you can't afford it, you take a temporary mortgage with the objective to sell.
Otherwise you add a lump sum to reimburse the capital to reduce your payments.
Different banks will offer different rates as well so you can shop around and negotiate.
We have to renew in Oct and we were looking at BMO and they have a 10 year fixed now.
Nope :)
I think you may be thinking of an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) where the bank recalculates the interest rate every few years based on the current federal rate (I'm not a money-ologist, but I think that's the broad strokes of it).
I pay 2.1% APR until it's paid off or I choose to refinance again (lol, right). The only thing that changes my monthly payment are the stuff paid from escrow (property taxes and homeowners insurance) since those can vary and the bank takes care of those by folding them into my payment amount.
Not sure what makes you think this, but most mortgages are a contract for 15 to 30 years that lock you into a rate until the house is paid off. You may be thinking of some kind of variable rate mortgage but I though those renewed the rates way more often than 5 years but I'm not sure. It'll all depend on the mortgage terms.
The U.S. is the only country in the world where the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is the most popular way that people buy houses. It’s the deliberate result of government policy—government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders, ensuring that they continue to offer such loans at little risk to themselves.
All the non-Americans here can't get 30 year fixed mortgages, that's why a good part of the Lemmings here are confused
30 year fixed rate with a 30 year pay-back period is available in the Netherlands too, but most people take the 20 year fixed rate for a 30 year repay period, because it's lower interest, and after 20 years, the remaining principal is pretty low.
Same exact situation. But I has daughters in a state that just upheld a civil war era law enacted to ban abortion prior to women being able to vote. We made a good amount of cash off the sale but now have to rent at almost twice what my mortgage was. Both my house and the Apt. I am in now in are owned by investment firms. This will be untenable.
Bought ours in January 2018 no way could we afford to give it up our refinance no matter 75k in equity. But our mortgage keeps pushing us too. I have click through 6 offers to refinance just pay my mortgage online each month.
Same, except for a slightly higher interest rate. My property value has gone up so much and I paid enough down that I could sell and go buy a really nice house in a shitty little town or rural area with cash and have no real bills. I could afford that. I just don't want to leave the convenience of my city.
So I can't leave and honestly I really don't want to yet. I'll leave when I retire.
Rent it out and move. Easy.
In the greater Boston area, rents are much, much less than interest costs on a mortgage.
It's very common right now to see a rental go on the market only for them to not get a renter and then for the house to be for sale within 6 months. ROI is plummeting compared to other investments but prices stay steady because so many want to buy a home.
That’s fascinating.
I wish there was a map of places where that happens. Not necessarily a cost to rent or cost to own, but a % difference between renting and owning.
In my city, mortgages are about 60-75% the cost of renting.
I think with a large enough sample size a lot of useful inferences could be drawn about how zoning, population density, and local renting laws impact that ratio.
There are condos for boston right now that would rent for 4000-5000/mo (like 2br/2ba) but are listed for sale for 1.35-1.4 million dollars. The mortgage on these things would be like 9k/mo. This is not the common property though, just an extreme example.
I put an offer down on this small multifamily with a total of 4br and 2ba (3br 1ba main unit and 1br 1ba sub unit) and the mortgage was looking like 5k-5.5k/mo with 20% down. Rental for 3br might go for 2400-2800 and a 1br is around 1600-1800. So combined let's call it 4300/mo for an investor. That's a $700+/mo lost cash per month assuming you get renters. If you can't find a renter for that 3BR unit... you're heavily boned.) It just doesn't make sense imo. Plus combined in the area I was looking at buying the unit, it has a penalty for non owner occupied property taxes. Plus the 1br unit needed the kitchen floor to be completely redone. I heard an investor at the open house talking about converting the nasty basement into a 3rd unit too.
Also all houses are going for about 10% over asking here, all contingencies except the mortgage one is waived (you must wave inspection. No one is accepting offers contingent on inspection in the suburbs of boston today in 2024.) A great deal many of offers show up waiving mortgage contingency as well, implying cash offers, but the last sellers agent I spoke to suggested waiving that to look like a cash offer and taking the risk of losing your job before the sale closes. It's fucking wild
If a house doesn't sell on it's opening weekend it's going to get cut every week until it finally goes. Being a greedy seller is really disadvantageous, but being just under value causes bidding wars.
If you have a mortgage condition you have an inspection condition. Lenders aren't giving you 500k for a house with a cracked foundation.
It's not the same as a traditional inspector though where you can negotiate some changes or fixes or money. Appraisers don't seem to be very rigorous.
Ha, possible. Though I don't want to be an absentee landlord or deny someone else an affordable home. Would definitely sell :)