The Real Cost of Rising Mortgage Rates

In the past two months, we have seen average mortgage rates jump up from 4.09% to 4.51%. That may not sound like much, but it really makes a difference. For every $100,000 you borrow today, you will be paying almost $25 more per month in interest than you would have been just 60 days ago.

It isn’t likely to stop here either. Most experts expect mortgage rates to continue to increase in the coming year. My advice to you is that if you are considering buying a home with a mortgage, you should move quickly. While we should expect home prices to soften a bit due to increasing mortgage rates, it would take an almost 5% decrease in the purchase price of your home just to get back to the same monthly payment you would have seen two months ago.

That appears very unlikely, with experts like CoreLogic still predicting a 6% rise in Florida home prices in the next year. Personally, I think rising mortgage rates will keep us from seeing the full 6% home price appreciation over the year, but I still believe it’s better to buy now than later.