Mortgage rates were little changed, averaging 3.56 percent from from 3.54 percent a week earlier. A year ago, a 30-year, fixed-rate home loan was 4.02 percent, according to Freddie Mac.
It can’t be said enough — home loans are really cheap. Mortgage rates briefly ticked above 4 percent at the end of December but otherwise have been in the 3 percent range for almost a year.
Mortgage prices tend to follow Treasury yields, which have been trending down all year, too. Last week, the interest on 10-year Treasuries dropped to its lowest in four years on worries that Britain would vote to leave the European Union. When the political and economic outlook is uncertain, the world’s money tends to flow into safe investments like U.S. bonds, including mortgages. That’s what’s happening now.
If voters across the pond approve Brexit — the “British exit” from the union — we can expect rates to fall even more, or at least stay super low.
So far, all this cheap borrowing has been good for U.S. homeowners and the housing market. Home sales reached a nine-year high in May, buyers are snapping up new construction, and architects report robust business, meaning more people are renovating or building.
In the long run, though, a Brexit would put a damper on the global economy. And the market boost from cheap home loans is minimized if only those few people with pristine credit can get them. Housing still has nagging structural problems. For now though, remember this chart.
