HOME MORTGAGES BELOW 4 PERCENT

Below 4 percent for Home Mortgages. Unbelievable. Who would have thought? As noted below, for folks with jobs and stable finances, this is once in a life time opportunity. For us here in Northwest Florida with a growing military population, who have jobs and stable finances, it makes the housing ownership market very attractive. Not only do you have the military population increasing in our area, our tourism is growing again, non-defense companies are moving into the area, new higher education opportunities are growing, and much more. The questions comes, will the commercial lending be able to keep pace to provide the needs of all of these new residents? I say yes, but not necessarily from our banks. More and more investment firms are providing the funding at reasonable rates. So in closing, this news and some of the other great opportunities taking off, we should be a bright spot in the country. So stay tuned as we move ahead with our growing pains. Growing pains. One pain, we could live with.

Mortgage rate below 4 percent WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has fallen below 4 percent for the first time in history. For the lucky few with good jobs and stable finances, it’s a rare opportunity to save potentially thousands of dollars each year. For most people, it’s a tease and a reminder of how weak their own financial situation is. On Thursday, Freddie Mac said the rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.94 percent from 4.01 percent last week, the previous low. The average rate on a 15-year fixed loan, a popular refinancing option, dipped to 3.26 percent, also a record. Mortgage rates are now lower than they were in the early 1950s. The average rate reached 4.08 percent for a few months back then, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Although mortgages at that time typically lasted only 20 or 25 years. Super low rates haven’t been enough to lift the housing market, which has struggled in recent years with anemic sales and declining home prices. Rates have been below 5 percent for all but two weeks in the past year. Yet sales of previously occupied homes this year are on track to be among the worst in 14 years. And homeownership has dropped over the past decade by the greatest amount since the Great Depression, according to 2010 census data released Thursday. “Considering how far mortgage rates have fallen, we’d expect to see more people refinancing and buying,” said Celia Chen, director of housing economics at Moody’s Analytics. “It’s still the lack of jobs and the difficult credit environment that’s pushing most people away.”