Did you know that about 2/3’s of homes in the United States are mortgaged? It’s a big number. Even more surprising is that about 2.5 million homeowners in the U.S. still have negative equity. Negative equity, often referred to as being “underwater” or “upside down,” happens when borrowers owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
Hurricane Irma is still disrupting local mortgage repayments. It has by no means reached a point where we should be concerned about another meltdown in our market, but the impact shouldn’t be ignored. Before the hurricane, our market was showing significant year on year downturns in mortgage delinquency rates and foreclosures. The mortgage market looked about as healthy as it could get. Thus, the real estate market looked the same.
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.