Are Interest Rates Rising?

Yes we are seeing a little increase with the average rates on 30 year loans at the end of November being closer to 4.75% while they have been as low as 4.00% and having one builder offer 3.9% on a new home.

The government loans (FHA and VA) have seen a downtrend of delinquency on the mortgages that they have right now, so that is good news. Actually at 9.13% delinquency rate is the lowest since the first quarter of 2009 and lower than it was a year ago. That is still good! That means the tightening of qualification and requiring having a job and having some money, fewer buyers are getting into homes they can’t afford and fewer default on their loans.

If we can see an improved delinquency rate, perhaps some of these stricter rules like higher credit scores could be adjusted down a little. There are good buyers out there that just goofed up one time and messed up their credit and they cannot buy. I like a lot of the restraints on buying qualification but the pendulum is way over, being extreme. We need to come back to the reasonable middle!