NAPA’S LOAN RANGER
It’s interest rate debate time T
he countdown is here. Not the countdown until January 1, 2021 when everyone wants to look back at 2020 and say what the &%5E%*. But the countdown until the election and for when we will have a COVID19 vaccine. But this year, oh my, what else is left, I don’t know. The current round of fires and the devastaCHRIS tion from them SALESE is just unbel i e va b l e . T h e incredible amount of loss and suffering that so many people are going through because of the fires is terrible. I hope everyone can pull together and remember that working with each other will only help our community recover faster. From an interest rate perspective, on top of everything else that’s going on, any recent rate movement seems to be
building up with more sensitivity each week. By this I mean, looking back to around March of this year when we all first started sheltering in place, home loan rates have been relatively steady. It’s almost as if they’ve been stuck in their homes themselves, just hanging around, slowly moving in pretty much a sideways pattern for months. In fact, this is going to be one of the bright spots or positive things from 2020, in terms of how low home loan rates have dropped this year and for how long they’ve remained at existing levels. No t t o m e n t i o n , h ow quickly this all happened earlier this year. Clearly, it caught industry experts and mortgage banking leaders by surprise as nobody had a business plan prepared for the type of home loan origination volume that is in effect today. Fortunately, each week that goes by and each month that passes,
more and more homeowners across the country have been able to secure lower home loan rates and save money on their monthly mortgage payments due to the efforts of the hard-working folks in the real estate and lending industries. Those that are taking money out from their homes are re-deploying it back into the communities where they live in the form of home renovations. Collectively, this has helped our overall employment picture and continues to provide strong economic support as well. Whether you are buying or refinancing, even if you have not been one of these homeowners yet to take advantage of 2020’s interest rate environment for whatever reason, there seems to be time left, at least for now. This is where the interest rate debate begins. The most common question that is asked of a
lender is “Where do you see interest rates going?” In 2020, whoever can answer that and believe their own answer is amazing, especially under the circumstances of this year’s events. There is simply an overwhelming number of variables that nobody has ever seen before that can influence the direction of home loan rates moving forward. That said, it’s always entertaining to debate, however, I’m sure very comforting to take what you can and not get confused by the increasing volume of noise that’s about ready to blast all of us. Chris Salese can be reached at chris@delsurmortgage. com or 707-363-4439. He is a licensed California mortgage lender (LO NMLS #254469 — CA-DBO #254469 Corp NMLS #1850 Equal Housing Opportunity.
Dreamstime
34 | DISTINCTIVE PROPERTIES
OCTOBER 2020
