Area Market Roars Back

We are seeing the strongest spring market in years as home buyers take advantage of reduced prices and low interest rates. Those rates have begun to rise so if you know of anyone looking to lock in on a home ahead of the increases let me know. 
Here's an interesting interactive chart to see how different markets have performed over the past 25 years.


Mortgage Rates Highest in a Year

We've seen rates jump to 3.8% over the past week or two. 

The Bad News

CNN is reporting what we have been predicting for some time - mortgage rates are on the rise. Rates hit all time lows and really had nowhere to go but up. As the economy improves the FED will want to stop spending 85 billion a month to buy mortgage-backed securities as a way of keeping rates low. The challenge Bernanke has is to gradually ease this buying without having rates spike, thereby slowing down the recovery. I would expect to see an upward trend over the next year. That trend started early since the FED has a long way to go to work out of the quantitative easing policy they implemented a few years ago. 

The Good News

Rates are still a screaming deal!  Even with the jump the increase will only add $2/month for every $10,000 borrowed. The trick will be to move quickly before they rise more.