For quite some time, borrowers have had the opportunity to take advantage of very low mortgage rates. But opportunities don’t last forever. For the first time in many months, rates have recently moved up. We don’t know if this is a trend or not, but it may be worth your while to let your borrowers know that record lows don’t last forever.
In other housing news, December Pending Home Sales, which gauge contracts on existing homes, were off 4.3% for the month. This is not surprising for the time of year, but it does presage a small dip in the sales of existing homes in the next month or two. We also had a dip in home prices from October to November in half the markets tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite home price index. Nevertheless, 19 of the 20 metros tracked showed annual price gains, up 5.5% over last year.