Rate vs Price

Today we’ll take a look at the impact of both home prices and mortgage rates on your decision to buy a piece of property.

Obviously, both are very important not only in terms of whether you should buy (from an investment standpoint), but also how much house you can afford.

Mortgage Rates Still Low

At the moment, mortgage rates are very close to historic lows, with the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 4.55 percent last week, according to data from Freddie Mac.

But while rates are low, home sales are still pretty flat, thanks in part to high unemployment, a lack of consumer confidence, and perhaps inflated home prices.
Yep, even though home prices are well off their housing bubble peaks, many feel they’re still inflated.

This is made clear without the use of home price indices, fancy calculators and algorithms…just take a look at some listings and you’ll think home sellers are nuts for asking so much.
Problem is most of them are asking for prices below their mortgage balance (short sale) and still aren’t getting any bites.

Home Prices Inflated
You can’t really blame them, as most bought during the boom at ridiculously inflated prices or bought pre-boom, and subsequently refinanced to tap into all that wonderful home equity.

Getting back on point, home values have lost about a decade’s worth of appreciation, and are currently coupled with near-record low mortgage rates.

Home prices are predicted to be pretty flat over the next several years, but mortgage rates are expected to rise.

So should you buy now while rates are low and prices have foreseeable downward pressure, thanks to all that distressed/shadow inventory and lack of confidence?
Or should you wait it out and let home prices hit bottom first?

(How to get a mortgage?)
Well, first things first, it’s nearly impossible to buy at the bottom. Anyone will tell you this, whether it’s a home or a stock or anything else.
Predicating the absolute bottom, or even close to it, can be a tall order.
Home prices are also regional and local, so it’s not like home prices have fallen by the same amount throughout the country.

And not all home prices in the nation can be designated as cheap, average, or expensive – they vary tremendously.
At the same time, it’d be hard to argue that mortgage rates nationwide aren’t super low and only expected to rise.

That said, let’s look at a scenario where mortgage rates rise and home prices slump.

Example:
Sales price: $400,000
Loan amount: $320,000 (20% down = $80,000)
Mortgage rate: 4.50%
Mortgage payment: $1621.39
Total paid: $583,700.40

Now say home prices fall 10 percent over the next year or two, while mortgage rates rise from 4.50 percent to 6.00 percent, which isn’t necessarily unlikely.

Sales price: $360,000
Loan amount: $288,000 (20% down = $72,000)
Mortgage rate: 6.00%
Mortgage payment: $1726.71
Total paid: $621,615.60

So as we can see, buying the home at the current higher price with the lower mortgage rate results in both a lower monthly mortgage payment and significantly less interest paid throughout the loan.

That could also make qualifying easier with regard to the debt-to-income ratio requirement.

However, the down payment is $8,000 higher on the more expensive house, which could prove a barrier to homeownership if assets are low.

But we’re still looking at savings of roughly $30,000 with the larger, yet lower-rate mortgage.

Hopefully this illustrates the importance of low mortgage rates. Of course, there are a ton of variables that can come into play.
Most people move or refinance within seven years or so, making the interest savings unclear.

There’s also the thought that once interest rates rise, they’ll put more downward pressure on home prices, meaning property values today are artificially inflated based on the low rates, which has somewhat increased demand.
And who knows, maybe rates will stay relatively low and home prices will fall even more than expected over the next few years.