Henry:
The real estate market never stops moving, and this week’s data really matters for homeowners and investors alike. What’s going on everybody? I am Henry Washington and I’m sitting in for Dave Meyer this week. I’m also joined by Kathy Fettke and James Dainard. We are unpacking all the latest headlines, including the most recent rate cut data and breaking down what they mean for prices, supply and your investment portfolio. This is on the market. Let’s get into it. We’ll start with the article that I brought because it’s talking about the thing that everybody’s talking about this week
Kathy:
And everybody’s been waiting for, right?
Henry:
Everybody’s been waiting for in my articles from MPA, the Mortgage Professionals of America, and it talks about how the 30 year fixed rate mortgage rate has recently dropped to 6.39%, which is obviously the lowest since October 24. But in reaction to that, drop mortgage applications have surged up 30% week over week, which is seasonally adjusted because we’re going into the slow season, but without adjustment, it’s up 43%, but 60% of those applications were for refinance applications. So people who probably bought last year or the year before sitting around 8% if you’re a homeowner and 9% plus if you’re an investor, are looking to refinance these properties, taking advantage of the burden in the hand that they have now of a lower interest rate purchase applications. It says were also up, but just modestly about 3% week over week and up 20% versus last year. And of those refinance applications, a good percentage of them around 12.9 or 13% were for adjustable rate mortgages, meaning that people were signing up for arm loans, but they’re not the same arm loans from 2008.
The arm loans have changed quite a bit since then. So the adjustable rate mortgage right now, what that means is you sign up for a fixed rate for a short period of time, so you can refinance your home, you can get a fixed for three…