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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Always On Point podcast, partnered here with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM on the Civic Music, the Civic Media app.
So excited to be with you here today.
We've got a lot of things, mortgage, to talk about tons of stuff going on in the news.
So I want to break it all down for you here and just go over the details of what's, what
what the news is, what's going on with that 50-year mortgage they're talking about and the assumable loans and mortgages and things like that.
So first things first, I always like to kick off starting out with where interest rates are at.
So today, the national average rate just for all of you out there is 6.38% on a 30-year fixed, 15-year fixed is a 5.86%.
That's no points.
And again, that's the mortgage news daily national average.
So
So rates do fluctuate, remember, from lender to lender, but just gives you a ballpark idea of where they should be if you are getting priced out on a loan and what to do there.
So no, the purchase market is really great right now, especially in the Northeast Wisconsin market, really feeling that buyers and sellers are coming to even terms, meaning that it's not an overly aggressive sellers market.
nor is it a buyer's market.
So these are the markets that I love the most because it gives that negotiation.
It gives that, that power to both teams.
It also allows for true negotiations to happen when it comes to appraisals and financing contingencies and, you know, actually being able to get inspections and things like that that are so important.
I'm a huge advocate for that on the buyer side of things.
Well, I do understand for a few years sellers were able to, you know,
make it offer to accept an offer, I should say, without having to take on any contingencies from the buyer and not have to worry about any inspections and things.
But the reality is, as a buyer, I do believe every buyer should at least have a right to know what's going on in that house mechanically so they know what they're getting into.
And so being able to negotiate that and have real estate agents helping buyers do that and sellers being willing to go that route and to, well.
they want to sell their house they might have to in some cases so that's been pretty cool i love seeing that that that playground if you will of real estate is evening out to both um now is a time where real estate agents are more important than ever and the reason why they are is because there is that unknown and whenever there's that unknown
Sellers don't know where to price their home right in order to sell them buyers don't know how to negotiate the best they can for themselves So this is a plug to my real estate agent friends out there who are licensed who do this for a living Their job is everything right now, and I'm telling you if you are a buyer or a seller You want them on your side.
They're worth their weight in gold and they will get you through you know
A couple of years ago, the sentiment was, oh, I all I have to do is stick a sign in my yard as a seller in the house sells.
Yeah, that was true to some cases.
However,
A lot of those times, it's not so much just putting a sign in the yard or writing the offer and getting it accepted.
It's actually what goes on in between there and closing that makes the most difference.
And you'd be surprised how much negotiating actually does happen in the in between.
And so having an agent that knows how to negotiate on your behalf, look out for your behalf, whether you're a buyer or a seller, is just really an important thing to protect you.
You know, real estate is an extremely litigious arena.
It just is.
It always has been.
And that makes no exception for now, which is, again, where a licensed real estate agent can help protect you from those litigations and make sure that you're buying or selling in the best right possible and protecting your asset and or protecting
what your future asset may be within that home.
So plug to my real estate agents.
If you are out there and you are thinking of selling and you don't have an agent that you've spoken with or you're thinking of buying and don't have an agent that you've spoken with, I have some great referral partners.
I'd love to help you out there.
Never go about it alone.
If you want a good trusted referral partner that I've worked with, just a reminder, I'm a loan officer in the Green Bay, Fox Valley Market.
However, I do, I'm licensed in over 10 states.
I do work all over the Midwest, but I am a hyper localized to the northeastern Wisconsin market.
And if you need an agent here, I'm happy to set you up with one.
Um, I've been writing loans for 24 years.
So I have a, I have a, I know a thing or two about this stuff and, and I love being able to share it with all of you.
So, um, you know, coming off of interest rates.
big news this week was the 50 year mortgage.
I can't tell you how many times I've talked about that.
And I, my eyes got as big as Saucers as well as everybody else's when we saw that, you know, meme come out where, you know, is a 50 year mortgage an option.
And I want to break that down because 50 years is a long time.
And, you know, while it does,
bring costs down in the immediate as far as a payment is concerned.
When we're looking at a 50-year next to a 30-year mortgage side by side, and for those of you that maybe aren't aware, a 30-year mortgage is a pretty standard mortgage right now, a 30-year, 360-months fixed rate, fixed payment for that full 30 years.
No prepayment penalties, typically they don't have any.
So you have the same principal and interest payment for every payment for the full 30 years.
Now, it doesn't mean that you can't prepay it, but just to give you an idea of mortgages, it was proposed because we do have an affordability issue.
So, it was proposed, well, what if we, you know, by the current administration, what if we do a 50-year mortgage?
And now, mind you, I've heard a lot about a 40-year mortgage over the last 10 years.
They've been playing around with that 40-year mortgage for a long time.
The 50-year kind of surprised us, came out of, I don't want to say left field, but it just felt that way.
So, 50-year mortgage side-by-side to a 30-year.
The average loan amount in our market is right around $300,000.
So just for, you know, rough numbers, we'll go off of that.
Well, with that being said, you know, yes, does the payment go down if you're looking at a 30 and a 50 year and you're assuming that the interest rate is the same.
So we're assuming that the interest rate is the same between that you are on average going to pay maybe $85 to $100 less a month in payment on principal and interest.
But you're actually gonna pay $10,000 more in interest over the first 10 years.
It's almost $1,000 a year.
So if you think about that, you get an immediate relief.
So I can understand that being a pro.
But the con, the con is that you're actually gonna pay more money.
And then let's just be real, you're gonna actually pay a lot more money than that because if you're gonna pay interest over 50 years versus 30, that's not rocket science, it's gonna cost you more money.
Um, and so, but we're talking to the tune of over that 50 years versus 30.
So there's an additional 20 years of a loan there that is on average somewhere around 300,000 extra dollars in interest.
Now there's a lot of charts out there.
There's a lot of different, you know, numbers.
You can run numbers every different way and, and
get something a little bit different.
I'm just giving you the averages, numbers I've ran, numbers I've seen, interest I've projected, because again, this has come up a lot in the last weekend.
You know, just want you to know that, you know, when you're looking at it, maybe instead of paying $500,000 for that $300,000 host with interest, now you're paying $700,000 for that house.
So you're paying, you know, two to three times as much.
Long term.
not a benefit to the borrower, not to mention that less of your money is going to principal over 50 years, which means you're paying more interest, which we just talked about.
But then at the same time, you're also getting less of an equity stake.
There's less equity there because it's taking you longer to pay it off.
So when you put those two things together, it is not financially beneficial to a borrower at all.
It's, in fact, quite opposite.
way more costly.
But let's break that down first.
For those of you who are with me now, we're talking about the 50-year mortgage and that option that came up this week.
If you are around at all for the 2008 and 2010 housing crash, you maybe don't remember, maybe this will spark a memory.
Dad Frank came in and they implemented a bunch of rules and regulations and laws, if you will, for the housing market because
The housing market was the Wild Wild West.
It was the big short at the time.
Thank you guys know that.
And with that being said, they implemented a lot of laws, a lot of regulations that came in.
One of those was called qualified mortgage or QM.
And while there are some non QM options out there for mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's 30 year fixed mortgage, 15 year fixed mortgage, all falls underneath the qualified mortgage.
You have to be
a qualified mortgage in order to get it approval, okay?
40 and 50 year terms are not inside that qualified mortgage.
So right now as it stands, it would be technically illegal to even write a loan at that.
Not to mention you'd have to find investors that are willing to put up money for 50 years.
I'm 45, you guys.
That would mean if I bought a new house today and took out a 50 year mortgage, I'd probably be a goner by the time it was paid in full.
I don't know about you, but the American dream is true home ownership.
And that means not paying the bank for the rest of your life, but actually owning the home free and clear.
So, you know, I think anyone has that same sentiment in 30 years is a pretty long time as it is.
But the 50 years just one that it's kind of mind boggling because I can't imagine paying one bill for 50 years.
Again, with that, you know,
we're just talking about what that looks like for a monetary standpoint.
Where does it gain and where, where do the pros and what are the cons?
The other, you know, the only pro I can truly come up with in this, at this time anyway, and there's a lot of investigating to do, not to mention con, it's not even a legal regulation right now, but the other con is obviously the financial part of it.
With that on top of it, it's,
your interest rate, you'd have to find an investor going back to that.
You'd have to find an investor that's willing to put up their money for 50 years.
The likelihood of them doing that at the same exact interest rate of a 30-year fixed is so bonkers to me.
And just speaking from truth, if I'm an investor and I'm gonna put up my money for 50 years,
I'm charging you a premium to do that, which means I'm charging you a higher interest rate to do that because I am now taking more risk that you're not going to pay me back in full or my investments will be gone.
I'll be dead by the time that 50 years comes around.
I know that sounds so cryptic, but it's true, right?
Like you're all probably giggling with me on the other side of this.
So to say that I'm going to have my money out there invested for 50 years on somebody and not get a premium for that.
It's not gonna happen.
The other part of it is where let's go back to the pro.
The pro is the monthly affordability.
We're getting a better monthly payment right now.
Again, we're assuming that that payment is the same interest rate.
So the numbers I gave you being the $85 to $100 a month cheaper on a 50 year mortgage versus a 30 year based around $300,000 loan amount.
You're gonna pay an extra $10,000 on the interest in the first 10 years.
So we know that, right?
But the other part of that is, is if I'm paying a higher interest rate, did I just lose that $85 savings?
And then now there's really no savings.
That's a big question.
So I want to continue to dive into that.
We're going to go to a break here shortly.
For those of you just tuning in, stay with us.
We're talking all the things about the new 50 year mortgage hoopla in the media right now, breaking it down layman's terms and hopefully giving you some information on that.
So come on back.
We'll be back in just a moment here at 97.9 FM 1590 AM.
We are here with the always on point podcast along with civic media.
Be right back.
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everybody to the Always On Point podcast partner here with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM WGBW with the Civic Media app.
So for those of you tuning in and joining us back, we are talking everything 50 year mortgages today because there are some cons.
I think there's like one pro that we've come up with.
And again, we're just breaking that down for you because
There's so much media hysteria about this.
Oh my gosh, what are we doing?
And so let's just break it down.
Let's continue to break it down.
So if you're just joining us now, we're talking about how a 30 and a 50 year mortgage stands side by side.
And we're using a loan amount of about 300,000 because that's about the average in northeastern Wisconsin.
The national average I think is 366.
We're right underneath that.
So with that being said.
30 year fixed rate is, you know, if you're, if you're looking at them side by side, assuming they have the exact same interest rate for that 30 or 50 years, saving about $85 a month to $100 a month on the payment for the, from the 50 year to the 30 year rate.
So your 50 year is going to have a little slightly less payment.
You're going to pay about $10,000 more in the first 10 years of the mortgage.
And the reason why I bring that up is because most
Mortgages have a five to seven year shelf life, meaning that if you're out there and you have a mortgage, typically within that first five to seven years, you've either refinanced it to a lower rate, you've cashed out of it to take equity to build up your house or do an addition, maybe pay off some debt.
The other part of that is you've simply bought the house, sold it, and moved up, or bought the house, sold it, and moved to a smaller home.
There's a lot of different reasons why people buy and sell.
But the average life is about five to seven years.
So if we're looking at 10 years, it's pretty much a good standard to stay on where it's going to cost you about $10,000 more.
Let's just say about $1,000 more a year for easy math.
This is the little asterisk that these numbers are not exact, but they're going to give you a good Paul Park just so you can visualize it, right?
We're over the radio, so want to make sure we're visualizing things.
So let's just say it's going to actually end up costing you $1,000 more a month in interest.
Now, with that being said, we're assuming that the interest rates are the same.
But again, if I'm an investor and I'm investing my money for 20 more years,
It means I've lent my money out.
I don't have it back.
I've got to make money on my money, right?
Cause I'm investing it.
I'm most likely going to have some higher parameters on those additional 20 years from the 30 or to the 50 year, which means I'm probably charging a premium, probably a little higher interest rate.
And then I'm also probably going to put some stricter guidelines in place.
So I'll give you an example on that, a 30 year fixed right now.
On a 30 year fixed with good credit, you can potentially go up somewhere between 48 and 49% debt to income ratio.
Your debt to income is obviously the debts you have monthly, anything on a credit report, your house, your car, your credit card, student loans, those types of things.
And I'm gonna divide that by my gross income and that's gonna be my debt to income ratio.
So if, and remember I said gross income, not net.
So if I'm leveraging a mortgage,
at 49% debt to income ratio, which I've seen them be approved at that.
That's pretty tight.
If I'm a 50 year investor and I'm investing my money for 50 years, you better have a little bit more skin in the game than that.
So now I'm probably gonna make that debt to income ratio go down lower, probably closer to 40%.
And now you guys, I'm just shooting from the hip on this, but I do, I've been in the business 24 years.
I do this every day.
For those of you that maybe don't remember, I'm the number one female loan officer in the state of Wisconsin three years running.
I'm only saying that because that telling you I do a lot of business.
I write a lot of loans, which means I've seen a lot and I've been through a lot.
And I have to think like an investor and I have to think like an underwriter in order to get loans approved.
If I just throw in any loan into an underwriter because I don't know what I'm doing, it's coming back and there's a good chance it's gonna be denied.
But if I think like an underwriter,
it's going in, it's going to be approved.
If I think like an investor, I'm going to make sure I'm meeting the guidelines that the underwriter has in place to protect that investor, right?
Because at the end of the day, the investor wants their money back.
They don't want to foreclose on you.
They don't want the house back.
They just simply want you to make your payment so they make the interest.
Okay, we've got that through.
If I'm a 50-year investor, I'm going to charge a little bit more, and I'm going to make sure that people have a little bit more skin in the game or a little bit more solid.
what that means is less risky, right?
They're holding less risk, which means they probably have a lower debt to income ratio.
The other part of this that I have to assume is that they're not going to allow you or I as a landlord to come in and buy a property and finance it over 50 years so that I can make money as a landlord.
And I've read a lot, I've researched a lot.
You guys, I researched with a lot of top loan officers across the country and we're all in the same belief that this would most likely be a primary residence only.
You're not gonna be able to buy a second home on a 50-year loan and you're certainly most likely, as far as we can see, gonna be able to invest on it.
So again, hypotheticals, but when I say that, the whole 50-year mortgage itself is a hypothetical right now.
I just want to educate you on the why's.
Why is it?
So, so far we found one pro could have a potential lower down payment, or I'm sorry, lower monthly payment, making it more affordable.
But the actual cons are a lot higher.
And I just don't know that the American public is looking for that.
I think deep down the answer is, and I was lucky enough to be interviewed on Fox 11 this week.
They called me and wanted my opinion.
Still crazy to me to think that people do, but I really love educating.
passionate about it, want to do it.
And one of those things that we brought up is the actual developing of homes.
and land making housing more affordable from the ground up.
So we do have a commercial break coming up, but I want to go over that.
So I'm going to lead into that segue.
Stay with us on the actual developing and where we could really see some, some great benefit coming.
So 97.9 FM 1590 AM here with the always on point podcast, civic media app.
Lucky to have you here.
We will be back in just a moment.
Stick around.
Take me to your best friend's house, go around this roundabout.
from Point Mortgage with the Always On Point podcast here, partnered with 97.9 FM, 1590 AM, WGBW.
So excited to be here.
If you're just tuning in now, we're talking all things updated mortgage.
We're talking about the 50-year mortgage.
and what that's looking like.
And you can also go on and find this information after the fact.
If you're just tuning in now to my Always On Point podcast, it's on all the podcast streaming platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, those types of things.
So go take a look for it.
We'd love to have your support and follow that channel so we can just keep educating because mortgages are as clear as mud as I jokingly say, but it's true.
And it's just something that's not taught in school.
So having this opportunity and this
microphone to be able to help educate everybody out there so that maybe you take a little nugget away and you learn something means I am doing the job I'm set out to do, which is be extremely transparent and as educational as I can be in this platform and in this mortgage space.
So 50-year mortgage, you know, we do, it's a talking point right now.
It's not coming into fruition.
We had kind of said before, and I'll say again, you know, right now laws and regulations would have to change to even put that in place.
And I don't care what side of the aisle you sit on.
Pretty certain that no laws and regulations change real quick.
So it is a talking point at this, at this point in time because they aren't, they aren't even eligible to be done.
And right now there's no investors out there that are saying, you know, screaming from the mountain tops.
Yes, I want to invest in, in risk, you know, my money for 50 years.
So 30
years is a
pretty good time.
But with that being said, you know, one of the things I love that this came up,
is that it got the industry talking.
It got people talking about the true issue in hand, and it is, yes, affordability is some of it, but it's not because interest rates are too high.
You guys, interest rates just fell, I told you earlier today, the 30-year fix, for example, is hovering right around 6.38 on a national average.
That's down a point from last year where we were at, so that's a 1% difference.
That's a pretty good interest rate from what we've seen over the last couple of years.
And it did not drive a massive amount of buyers into the industry.
So that tells me that there's still something missing.
And the truth of the matter is it's the pricing of homes.
Now that doesn't mean I'm not saying that homes are overvalued.
I think they're valued right where they should be.
The market has told us that for four, five, six years.
Homes are still appreciating in our market.
But the cost of building them is still high.
And it's really tough to build an affordable home right now.
And so why I bring that up is because I thoroughly believe that we need to fix it from the ground up, meaning it comes at the developing side.
It comes from needing to help developers
One, to help smaller builders be able to build more, because the costs are so high they don't necessarily have the capital to do so, which then means the builders that are able to build anything are mass corporate builders.
So then it's almost like a monopoly, right?
And so we need to give our smaller builders an opportunity to keep up, and that's by making things more affordable.
So it's the cost of developing the land.
It's the cost of permitting.
Um, it's all the red tape that goes into it.
I'm lucky enough.
I've got to talk to a lot of builders and they agree.
Like for instance, let's just say, and this isn't mortgage related, but there's a, there's a builder I know down in the Madison market.
And he was, you know, telling me he's like, listen, if I want to build a 500 unit property, uh, apartment building,
I have to pay all the permitting and all the developing fees on all 500 doors upfront.
It's a lot of money.
And a small localized builder is never gonna have that kind of money or capital in order to do that.
So again, that's where the monopoly comes from.
But if we help,
curb the red tape on needing to do that.
Maybe, maybe develop in phases.
Maybe be able to give developers and builders an opportunity to cut costs a little bit so that they don't have to put all those costs onto the consumer, dropping the prices of those homes to make it more affordable.
Now, I'm not saying build bigger homes for less money, but maybe we go back to the three bedroom one bath that, you know, like I had said earlier, I gave away my age, I'm in my mid 40s.
We all grew up in that type of household.
And maybe it's to go back to that where it's just giving people an option to buy in an affordable level.
And, you know, those are just some of the options out there.
But overall, I love the fact that I got the industry talking this 50 year mortgage.
The other part of it that got the industry talking right now is bringing your current interest rate with you to your next home.
It's called portable.
They're talking about a portable interest rate.
And there's actually a portable interest rate option in Canada.
So I'm wondering if that's kind of where it came from.
I'm sure there's other countries that have it, but the essentially what they're saying is, is you have a low interest rate right now.
We want you to sell your house, but you don't want to sell your house because you don't want to go into a higher interest rate.
A lot of homeowners are saying that right now.
what if we allow you to take your lower interest rate and move that to the next house?
It's an option.
And so what does that look like?
Now, it's a need option, but again, where's the detail in that?
Does that mean if I owe $150,000 on my 3% interest rate from buying five years ago and I want to buy a $500,000 house, does that mean I have to come up with
the $350,000 difference out of pocket?
Is there a way to finance that?
Or, you know, I can take some of the proceeds because my house that I owe 150 on has appreciated quite greatly.
So what does that look like?
There's a lot of details there.
The other part of it in, you know, the Canadian, you know, regulations that they have on their portable interest rate is
that maybe it's a mixed rate.
So maybe I have a 3% interest rate right now and I just got done saying the national average is 6.38.
Do I merge those together and come up with an average and then that's the new rate on all the money?
That might be an answer too.
So those are some things to think about.
The other piece of that to think about is if I'm an investor and I have money out there and a consumer is borrowing it from me at 2.25%, I'm really not making any money on that.
Do I want them to take that mortgage with them to another house so I can still not make money on that?
I think that's a big debate.
So, you know, just strategically thinking, I think there's a lot of talk that's going to be going to be had on this.
I think that this is just opening the door.
I think that these ideas are thinking outside of the box, which I love.
I'm an out of the box thinker.
all the time and I want to, I love to problem solve.
So that to me is why I love the conversation of the portable mortgage or the portable interest rate and the 50 year mortgage, even though they might not be the answer because they're not all that glamorous when you get down to the nitty gritty of what the investors and what the guidelines are really going to show.
But again, it's thinking outside of the box.
We have to fix the problem.
And I will say that this is one of the first administrations that I can remember in a long time where we're actually looking to find a way
to fix the housing industry.
And that part I love.
Again, not trying to get political, but we have to, I focus on the housing industry because that's where my career is.
That's where I'm at.
And so that's what I like about it.
We're just getting the conversation started.
I will say too, one of the things I wanted to talk about is the other big media hype right now is, oh my gosh, foreclosures are up.
Everybody's foreclosing.
Not true, not true, not true.
When we were in the industry during COVID, go back to COVID, the foreclosure rate was like 0.03% or something really low.
The lowest I think we'd ever seen.
So right now it's hovering somewhere depending on what report you read, but right now the average is right around 4%.
So of course, side by side, foreclosure rates are up.
However, 4% is still really low.
You guys not to get in the negative side of things, but we still have people still lose jobs every day regardless of what's going on in the overall jobs market.
People still get divorced every day.
You know, people get sick, bad things happen to good people all the time and they have to foreclose whether it was intentional or not.
And so with that being said, those things still happen.
So 4% of that is happening.
I don't think that number is gonna grow crazy.
I don't think, I think it's just the actual average.
I don't think we're going into any kind of a housing bubble.
I don't think there's gonna be a plethora of foreclosures.
And here's why.
There's still a massive amount of money across the nation that's out there with people with equity.
And so these people, if they are in a hardship right now, are going to sell.
and take that equity and pay off their debt and start over before they're ever gonna foreclose.
They're gonna take, they're gonna sell that house, they're gonna take that equity and put it away and maybe rent for a minute, get the credit back up and then use it to buy their next house.
Either way, they're going to use that equity to help them.
They're never just gonna walk away from it.
That would be foolish.
So I just don't think that the foreclosure storyline is really one to,
to hold on too tight.
I do think a lot of the questions I'm still getting to is, well, what's going to happen in 2026?
What are interest rates going to do?
And for those of you that are just joining us, we're kind of talking about interest rates.
We're talking about the market itself right now and some of the media hype.
One of the other media topics right now that's really big is, is the Federal Reserve going to lower rates in December?
They started out with, I think it was somewhere around an 80 to 85% chance that yes, they were.
And that continues to diminish as inflation continues to be an issue.
So will there, won't they?
I don't ever like to bet on that because, you know, federal chair Jerome Powell is going to do it, federal chair.
Jerome Powell wants to do.
But what I can tell you is, is that I don't think we're going to have any huge rate reductions in the next couple of months.
I think that we are where we're at.
I think they're going to stay steady through the, you know, through the winter here.
They are still projecting an interest rate reduction.
I think in February and April, those I think will come.
I think they'll come, you know, maybe at a quarter percent each, you know,
Lord knows tomorrow, the news story could change and I might come in next week with a different topic, but right now that's what all my research is telling me and all the charts that I follow.
You know, I'm a mortgage geek, so I watch dot plots and things like that to kind of feel out where the actual Federal Reserve themselves is at.
Now remember, mortgage rates are not directly tied to the Federal Reserve rate.
So the big misconception is, oh my gosh, the Federal Reserve dropped rates, mortgage rates dropped.
That's not true.
The last two times the Federal Reserve dropped the interest rate, mortgage rates actually went up.
So yeah, that's true.
And I know that's harder up your head around, but the Federal Reserve rate is tied to the rate that banks borrow at.
So you're talking when they drop rates, you're talking credit card rates, second mortgage rates, your actual first mortgage rates are mortgage back securities.
So those rates are not at all driven.
Now, will the investors change?
around what the Federal Reserve does?
Yes, absolutely.
But again, it's not directly correlated.
So, you know, we're hopeful.
I'm really hopeful that by mid next year, we see five and a half percent on a 30 year fix.
I think it's possible.
I can't confirm that.
And I always say, you know, the rates, my rate prediction is about as clear as
a crystal ball and I'm not betting on that, not today, not tomorrow.
The crystal ball will tell us and it'll tell us on that day.
And I'm not predicting it tomorrow, but I do, my gut is telling me that.
My gut is usually pretty right after being in the business this long, that that's kind of where we'll head up.
So let's finish up this show.
When we come back, one more quick break here for you, always on Point Podcast, 97.9 FM, 1590 AM, WGBW here in the Civic Media.
We'll see
you right back.
You're
listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website.
civicmedia.us.
So grateful to be here.
I am a mumbling mess today when it comes to mortgages.
And if you're still tuned in, I appreciate it.
If you're just tuning in now and you missed it earlier, we talked a lot about the 50 year mortgage.
We talked a lot about what's going on in the mortgage world right now, what you can expect, what you can't kind of cutting through all the, all the media hype.
So you can go over to any podcast platform and get this show on the Always On Point podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, things of that nature.
So just continuing on with where we're at and what we're talking about today is, you know, mortgages in the market.
And what are interest rates going to do in 2026?
That's a big predictor.
And if you just, you know, coming back in, I had just gotten done saying my crystal ball is only clear today.
And I don't ever go on big predictions.
You'll never hear me say I guarantee because I've been in this industry too long and seen it go really good.
And I've seen it go the opposite.
And so with that, you know, we're at
year lows.
We still are, maybe not the lowest we've been in a year, but we're still pretty close to year lows.
You're talking anywhere from the upper fives to low sixes for mortgage interest rates right now, which is a great place to be.
I'd like to personally see about another half percent lower in that in the 30 year fix, get down around five and a half.
I do think that there's potential for that in 2026.
We'd love to see it.
And if rates drop, that
amount, I think we might see more sellers enter the selling market, which gives our buyers more opportunity, which would be great.
You know, sellers have been stuck because if they are in a mortgage that's at, you know, let's say even three to 4%, two years ago, a year and a half ago, we were at almost 8% or sometimes over 8% for an interest rate.
That's a really hard pill for a seller to swallow to say, I'm going to sell my house and then at 4% even, let's say, and get into an 8% interest rate.
So instead they just stayed.
They held out, they stayed.
Now, if they're going from 4% to maybe a 5.5% or 6% interest rate, that's not such a tough pill to swallow.
So they're saying, okay, now maybe, now it's to the point where I'm gonna think about this.
And if we can get these sellers on board and start getting some more inventory, I think that that's gonna be a huge help overall.
And I think buyers are in it to buy right now.
But I also think they're in it to buy and say,
I'm gonna buy it my way.
And that means I want an inspection.
I want an appraisal inspection.
You know, I want to know what I'm getting into.
And in all fairness, I think everyone out there agrees that that should be at least an ability for them.
I know for the past few years, that wasn't always the case.
And you know, as sellers, it was a hot sellers market.
So the sellers kind of called the shots on that.
But I think buyers are at least having a voice now.
And I love that for them.
I love that our market is stable.
Right now,
when we have three to 5% appreciation year over year, we have really nice interest rates comparatively speaking to where they were 18 months ago, and we still have strict mortgage guidelines, and it's not an oversellers market, it's not an over buyers market, you guys, that's a really healthy, sustainable market to be in.
That's what you wanna see.
I know it feels odd because it's so different than where we've been in the last five years,
But this is the market that matters.
This is the good market.
This is the market that you want to be in long term.
No big lows and no big highs.
And that's what I love for it.
I love the stability.
I love the fact that our agents have to negotiate on behalf of their buyers and sellers.
And there are some great real estate agents out there.
So I want to circle back.
I started this show talking about how important our real estate agents are.
And I'm going to come back around.
to finish it because for those of you that weren't here at the top of the hour, it's so important to work with a real estate agent who has your back, who's licensed, who knows how to negotiate.
Making an offer and seeing a property is one thing.
Taking it to the closing table is an entirely different event.
And having a strong real estate agent working on behalf of you, whether you're a seller or a buyer, is so important.
I'm so fortunate that over the course of my career, you know, over 20 years now that I've been able to work with some of the best of the best in the industry, in the market.
And we've got our lineup of guests coming for the next month and you're going to get to meet some of them.
And I'm so excited.
We've got them all lined up and ready to come.
And I'm excited to introduce them to you because partnering with really strong, great real estate agents is something that I
pride myself in because if I'm gonna work with my buyers, I want them to have the best of the best.
I want them to get the best of the best.
And that comes as a team, which is your real estate agent, your loan officer, your insurance agent, your appraisers.
a title company, everything in combined.
And when you work with the best of the best, you have the best experience.
And I'm sure there's some of you out there nodding saying, yep, that was me.
And you have some of you shaking your head saying, gosh, I just didn't have that experience.
If you didn't, I'd love the opportunity to talk to you and put you in the right hands.
That's what I'm here for.
That's what I want to do.
And then educate you on what it's supposed to look like and how it's supposed to go for you.
If anything, the takeaways today, rates are really good.
The market's really strong.
50-year mortgages are far away out, talking point, probably not gonna come to fruition, but I've seen crazier things, so when they do, you can tell me I'm wrong.
But anyway, right now, they're not coming anytime soon.
And that I really want to do whatever I can to help educate you all on getting you in the right mortgage, the right team, the right way.
I can't thank you enough for tuning in and to continuing to support this podcast.
It means the world to me.
We're going to keep bringing the information that I hope you know and love.
And as always, if you have a question, you want to bring anything to me, text me direct 920-606-1156.
Again, that's 920-606-1156.
I love the comments.
I love when you text and send me questions.
Happy to get them answered online for you here.
So again, 97.9 FM, 1590 AM, WGBW.
Thank you for partnering with me in the Always On Point podcast.
We'll see you next week.
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