China News Agency, New York, April 14 (Reporter Wang Fan) According to data released by Freddie Mac, the US home mortgage giant, on the 14th, as of that day, the average interest rate of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in the United States increased from a week ago. 4.72% rose to 5%, the highest level since February 2011.
Potential home buyers in the U.S. will face even greater challenges as home loan rates soar.
The latest home loan interest rate data means the median monthly payment for homebuyers will increase by about $400 per month, potentially increasing the Many potential home buyers crowd out the market.
However, the "housing war" in the US real estate market has not subsided.
In recent years, the contradiction between scarcity of inventory and strong demand has continued to push up US housing prices. In this context, investors with sufficient funds have boldly increased prices to "snatch houses" in order to ensure transactions.
In New York and New Jersey, for example, it is the norm for multiple buyers to compete for a property.
"Recently, I helped a client raise the bid three times, with a total increase of more than 100,000 US dollars, but was still rejected by the seller," Eva, a real estate agent who lives in New Jersey, told a reporter from China News Agency on the 14th.
She said that the current average price of homes with high volume in popular areas of New Jersey is about $700,000. Since there are multiple buyers bidding at the same time, sellers will prioritize the right buyers from those with higher bids.
Jessica, who lives in Flushing, a Chinese-inhabited area in New York, said that her friends are worried that the house prices will continue to rise and they will be more unaffordable in the future, so they have been visiting houses frequently in the past two months.
However, she said that several houses that her friends liked were "snatched" by price increases. "The people who bought the house must have bid much higher than the quoted price."
On the 14th, Wells Fargo, the number one mortgage lender in the United States, announced its first-quarter 2022 financial results.
In the first quarter of this year, Wells Fargo processed a 27% year-over-year decline in residential mortgage applications.
The "Wall Street Journal" analysis pointed out that this shows that the number of people applying for home loans in the United States is declining, and ordinary home buyers with limited budgets are the first to be hit by rising loan interest rates.
The average U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate rose 1.55 percentage points in the past three months, the largest increase in a three-month range in 35 years, according to data released by Freddie Mac.
For the average home buyer, the affordability of home ownership is increasing, while the range of housing options they can choose from is shrinking, Bloomberg said.
Inventory of condos for sale in the U.S. has declined significantly faster than single-family homes this year, according to a new report from real estate services firm Redfin, suggesting more people are considering buying condos with relatively lower median prices.
However, as demand for apartments in popular areas is also strong, about 70% of the condos sold ended up selling for more than the sellers offered.
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