Record-Low Interest Rates Make Chicago Condos, Single-Family Homes More Affordable
January 17th, 2012 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
Need a reason to buy a Chicago condominium or single-family home today? Here’s a good one: If you need to take out a mortgage loan to pay for this Chicago residence, it’ll cost you less.
That’s because mortgage interest rates have again fallen to a record low.
According to a story in the Chicago Sun-Times, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan fell to 3.89 percent last week. That’s an all-time low.
Of course, setting new records is nothing unusual. The previous record low for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan stood at 3.91 percent, a low that the country hit just three weeks earlier.
The news is even better for 15-year fixed-rate mortgage loans. According to the story, the average rate on this kind of loan fell to 3.16 percent last week. That, too, represents a new record. And again, the record it broke isn’t that old. The previous record low was 3.21 percent, as recently as three weeks ago.
These new lows are important for home buyers because they make the process of buying a home more affordable. If you took out a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan with an interest rate of 3.89 percent, your monthly payment would stand at just $1,177.74, according to Bankrate.com.
If you took out that same loan with an interest rate of 6 percent — a rate that would have been considered stellar just a few short years ago — you’d pay $1,498.88 a month, according to Bankrate. That’s a huge savings per month thanks to the lower mortgage interest rates.
Then there’s the fact that sellers today are willing to negotiate on just about everything in an effort to get their homes off the market faster. It all combines to make this a great time to buy a house in the city of Chicago and across the country.
