Last week Yahoo’s Finance page led with a commentary that posed the question, “Why Aren’t Homeowners Taking Advantage of Low Mortgage Rates?” Although the premise (“mortgage rates have plunged back to the lowest levels in at least half a century”) may have been slightly overblown, Houston home loan shoppers could indeed have found published rates that were at bargain-basement levels.
The author, Doug Whiteman (the editor-in-chief of MoneyWise), calculated that, at end-of-March rates, 11 million U.S. homeowners could have saved at least $3,200 per year by refinancing. Even though many existing Houston home loans already reflect low rates, with last week’s national 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 3.33%, you’d think refinance lenders would be doing land-office business. Yet last week’s Mortgage News Daily reported that refinance applications had dropped by 19%.
So, why weren’t borrowers stampeding to take advantage? The reasons may not be tied to financial or technical issues at all. Although Whiteman never really got around to directly address the question about why homeowners are “overlooking falling mortgage rates,” it could be as simple as a one-word answer: “distractions.”
With pandemic news clogging the airways and economists unable to clarify the direction of the business outlook—even in the near term—it wouldn’t take a leap of logic to pin any lack of Houston home loan activity on all the other demands being made on local homeowners’ attention. It might well explain Yahoo’s accusation that “homeowners are snoozing and losing.”
Houston’s usual high-intensity peak real estate season could fall victim to the same phenomenon—added to the natural human tendency to postpone major decisions until turbulent times subside. Even so, for area homeowners (and home shoppers), the mortgage opportunities are real—no matter how overshadowed by events they may be. Call Rinnovare Realty, LLC at (832) 445-4957 for a professional’s undistracted evaluation of the current Houston real estate landscape!