Here is Redfin’s
Here’s a mortgage broker’s:
- The new strain of COVID-19 is going to make the economy worse in the near-term. Lower rates ahead. Locally, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage (up to $548,250) will drop below 1%. We’re not too far away. The national average for the 15-year fell Thursday, Dec. 24, to a record low of 2.19%. Well-qualified borrowers can get a rate of 1.75% with less than 2 points.
- Locally, the 30-year fixed will drop below 1.5% with points. Currently, we’re in the very-low 2’s with points, and the national average fell Thursday to a record low of 2.66%.
- Locally, the 30-year jumbo fixed-rate (over $822,375 in Los Angeles and Orange counties and over $548,250 in the Inland Empire) will drop below 2% with points. Today you can get 2.75%. The 43% debt-to-income restriction for jumbos is going away. (Just about every mortgage lender in America will chase the big loans. More jumbo volume means more income for the same work since the dollars paid are based on loan size.)
- The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed-rate will average 2.65%, vs. a 2020 average of 3.12%. Freddie’s average rate has been below 3% since July.
- Average Freddie Mac mortgage rates will rise starting in the fourth quarter of 2021 as COVID-19 subsides and things start getting more normal. Get your mortgage business done before then. Rates will never be this low again.
- Wall Street’s prime rate will remain 3.25% throughout 2021.
- California’s eviction and foreclosure moratoriums will be extended through the third quarter of 2021. It will be lifted Oct. 1, and long lines will form at the courthouse.
- Southern California’s median home price will increase 10%.
- Southern California home sales will be flat compared with 2020.
- Congress and President-elect Biden will approve a first-time homebuyer tax credit of at least $10,000.
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