For those looking to buy and move into a new home before the end of the year, August is a popular time to house hunt. If you’re looking to buy soon, here’s 3 things to know about the current mortgage rate climate.
Rates Nationally Have Largely Remained Stagnant
While there have been ups and downs throughout the year, mostly in individual weeks and individual months like May’s high rates earlier this year, overall rates have remained unchanged week to week. We continue to be in the national ranges of mid to high 4s for 30-year fixed rate mortgages. As Mortgage Daily News reports in their weekly and daily reports released Friday, the current rates “aren’t the worst we’ve seen and they’re not the best.”
The Stagnant Rates are Making Most Media and Economist Anxious for Good News
This anxiousness this past week has led to many reports taking advantage of daily positive changes of lower rates this week and proclaiming it as permanent drops, giving false hope of good reports. Mortgage Daily News talked about the misleading information in both their Thursday and Friday daily reports last week saying that the perspective of mortgage rate drops has little to do with the actual rates and more to do with the upfront costs. In fact, they say “the average top tier borrower has seen 4.625% on a 30yr fixed for a long time now while daily fluctuations in upfront costs make “effective mortgage rates” higher or lower during that time.”
So What Does This Mean for Considering Whether to Float or Lock Rates?
Due to the relative stagnancy of overall rates, but increased big-picture effects to federal reports pushing those effective mortgage rates higher, mortgage originators in general suggest locking as there is a good chance for higher rates overall down the road and very little chance of things moving lower unless something major changes.
Bonus: So, What Does This Translate to in Local Terms?
Like the federal rates, local rates have remained largely stagnant. However, they have been trending towards the higher ranges of those federal rates with most ranging from 4.7-5.1.
Here’s a few local mortgage rates, according to bankrate.com, based on a 30-year fixed rate with a loan of $300,000. Contact your local lender to find out what your rate is.
| Bank | Rate |
| Independent Bank | 5.1 |
| US Bank | 4.625 |
| HSBC bank | 4.645 |
| Wilson Bank and Trust | 5.0 |
| Fifth Third Bank | 4.783 |
