Mortgage • February 28, 2023

Mortgage Rate Prediction

by Brandon Bidwell

Our Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner predicts that interest rates will hit 5.4% by the end of 2023.

His prediction is aligned with most expert real estate economists.

While rates will continue to bounce up and down as the year goes on, the general trend will be lower rates.

This prediction is mainly based on the Fed tempering their increases as inflation starts to ease in the second half of the year.

Because of this prediction, we see housing demand increasing as rates decrease throughout the year.

Mortgage • February 21, 2022

Mortgage Rate Impact

by Brandon Bidwell

This week, for the first time in 32 months, mortgage rates hit 4%.

While this increase may feel painful for buyers currently looking at property, it is important to put today’s rates in perspective.

We believe we will look back a few years from now and see that a 4% rate was like buying money at a discount.

Interest rates hovered between 4.5% and 3.75% for the 8-year span of June, 2011 to June 2018

Between January, 2000 and December, 2010 rates were as high as 8.25% and as low as 5.0%.

When looking at the history of interest rates and researching economists’ forecasts, we believe it is reasonable for rates to hit 5% within the next 24 months.

When interest rates increase 1%, a buyer’s monthly payment increases 10%.

So, if rates do go to 5%, it is like an additional 10% price increase for a buyer.

Given all of this information, the biggest risk to a buyer in today’s market may very well be to wait.

Mortgage rates are likely on their way up and there is an opportunity to buy money at a discount today.

Market Data • Mortgage • January 19, 2021

Economists Prediction on Interest Rates

by Brandon Bidwell

Where are interest rates headed?

This question was one of many which were addressed during our annual Market Forecast yesterday.

Our Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner, provided insight on rates, prices, inventory and many other fascinating topics.

Matthew’s prediction is for rates to creep up to 3.07% by the end of 2021. They are currently at 2.79%.

The image below shows how his prediction compares with predictions of his economist colleagues.

Please let me know if you have questions or if you would like a recording of the full presentation.

Market Data • June 3, 2020

Mortgage Rate Forecast for the rest of 2020

by Brandon Bidwell

This week on “Mondays with Matthew”: Now that things have settled down somewhat following the initial impact of COVID-19, Matthew dives into the topic of mortgage rates. Will they go below 3%? Matthew discusses this and the factors that have formed his updated 2020 and 2021 mortgage rate forecast.

Buyers • Mortgage • February 29, 2020

Interest Rates near All Time Low!!!

by Brandon Bidwell

Interest rates on a 30-year mortgage right now are just about the lowest they have ever been in history.

The rate today is 3.45%
The lowest-ever in November, 2012 was 3.31%
A year ago they were 4.35%

So, what gives? Why are rates so low? It turns out that the coronavirus is pushing rates down to historic lows.

The virus is causing uncertainty in the global financial markets. When there is uncertainty, there tends to be a flight from stocks into bonds.

Specifically, there tends to be a flight to U.S. Treasuries.

High demand for U.S. Treasuries means that the interest rates on those bonds goes down.

30-year mortgage rates track the rates on the 10-year Treasury and the 10-year Treasury just hit their lowest rates ever at 1.31%.

The uncertainty around the virus will likely keep rates down for the foreseeable future.

If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to reach out to your mortgage lender to see if you would benefit by refinancing your loan.

If you would like to see a video recap of our annual Market Forecast you can watch that HERE.

If you would like recommendations for good, local lenders to compare just let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the best I know!

Market Data • January 23, 2020

The 12 Facts of Real Estate

by Brandon Bidwell

Here are 12 facts about Colorado real estate as we head into 2020:

1 is the ranking Colorado owns for long-term home price appreciation versus all other states
2.6% unemployment rate in Colorado right now
3.73% mortgage rate for a 30-year mortgage which is about half of the long term average
4.7% apartment vacancy rate in Metro Denver, the lowest since 2015
5.5% is the long-term average for yearly home price appreciation along the Front Range
6,000,000 live in Colorado
7,000 residential properties are for sale in Metro Denver right now and the average for this time of year is 14,700
80,000 is the number of people that is added to our state’s population each year
9 homes are for sale in Larimer and Weld County priced over $2,500,000
-10% is the decrease in new home construction in Larimer County compared to last year while Weld County grew by 17%
11 times in the last 40 years home prices have gone up at least 8% along the Front Range
$1,202,488 is the average price for a single-family home in the City of Boulder

Buyers • Market Data • December 18, 2019

Matthew Gardner’s 2020 Mortgage Rate Forecast

by Brandon Bidwell

Each year Windermere’s Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner, forecasts into the next. Here’s what he expects for Mortgage Rates in 2020.

Buyers • Market Data • Mortgage • September 14, 2019

Interest Rate Bounce

by Brandon Bidwell

Rates hit near-historic lows this week and are now at 3.49% for a 30-year mortgage.

There have only been two other times in history when rates have been this low- April 2013 and October 2016.

It’s interesting to see what happened soon after bottoming out these last two times.

In April of 2013 rates hit 3.41%. By August 2013 they had jumped to 4.40%.

Rates bottomed again in October 2016 at 3.42%. Just two months later in December 2016 they were 4.32%.

Each time the increase was nearly 1% within just a few months.

So, if history proves itself as a guide, we can’t expect these rates to last for long.