B4 • Friday, January 7, 2022
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Julie Black, Principal Broker & Owner (808) 652-6174 with daughter Kela Caspillo, Realtor Sales Person (808) 652-6173 kauaidreams.com
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Red-hot housing market to fuel record borrowing in ‘22 Alex Veiga ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kapa‘a
7060 Kahuna Road A large 4 bedroom/ 4 bath home on 1.75 level acres with beautiful Makaleha mountain and waterfall views in upper Kapahi. Upgrades include the electrical, plumbing, flooring, paint, bathrooms and more. This peaceful estate features 3 lanais for enjoying the outdoor views and an abundance of fruit trees. The house is close to wading areas, hiking trails and natural springs. MLS # 655161; $1,295,000. Call Julie Black, RB (808) 6526174 or Kela Caspillo, RB (808) 652-6173 Kauai Dreams Realty, to see this Property.
LOS ANGELES — The fierce competition, low mortgage rates and soaring prices that helped raise mortgage borrowing to record heights last year is expected to drive lending even higher this year, experts say. Banks lent an estimated $1.61 trillion for home purchases last year, up about 9% from 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That tops the $1.51 trillion lent at the peak of the housing bubble in 2005, the highest on records going back to 1990. Lenders issued 4.74 million loans to borrowers buying a home last year, down from 4.92 million in 2020, according to the MBA. Even so, the dollar value of for-purchase loans increased last year as home prices surged, often as homebuyers agreed to pay well above a seller’s asking price to outbid competing offers. “Strong housing demand, persistent increase in housing demand, constrained supply, increase in prices — that’s what led to that record purchase level last year,” said Mike Fratantoni, the MBA’s chief economist. The housing market has strengthened during the pandemic as many Americans transitioned to working at home, which put additional living space at a premium. Steady job growth,
ROGELIO V. SOLIS / ASSOCIATED PRESS
A “Sold” sign is on display on the lawn of a new house in Pearl, Miss., Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. may end up being a little better a stock market at all-time highs, than in 2021 as homebuilders rising rents and expectations of crank out more homes, it still higher mortgage rates have also won’t be enough to give the upper spurred homebuyers, even as hand to buyers, Fratantoni said. skyrocketing prices and a “2022 is still going to be a historically low level of homes for seller’s market,” he said. “There’s sale have shut out many others. more demand than supply, and Median U.S. home prices in that’s why we’re very confident October were nearly 20% higher that prices are going to keep than a year earlier, according to going up.” the most recent S&P CoreLogic Meanwhile, homebuyers are Case-Shiller home price index. likely going to have less buying The housing market is expected to continue to sizzle this power this year to cope with rising home prices. year, which is why the MBA The extraordinarily low projects that the dollar value of mortgage rates that have helped for-purchase home loans will intensify housing market demand climb to a new high of $1.74 are expected to continue creeping trillion. higher in 2022 as the Federal While the for-sale inventory
Reserve phases out the monthly bond purchases it has been making since the early days of the pandemic. The central bank has already signaled that it expects to start raising interest rates as early as this spring to check sharply rising inflation. The average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage stuck around 3% in 2021. The MBA’s forecast calls for that average rate to rise to 4% this year. That’s close to other housing economists’ forecasts. The National Association of Realtors projects the average rate will rise to 3.7% by the end of this year. Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate, forecasts rates will peak at 4%, but end the year at 3.5%. “It will be a bit of a roller coaster ride,” McBride said. “The higher rates we expect in 2022 won’t take the winds out of the sails of the housing market, but it will change the refinancing equation significantly.” Homeowners borrowed some $2.32 trillion in 2021 to refinance their mortgage, down about 12% from 2020, when refinancing hit a record high, according to the MBA. Taken together, mortgage refinancing in 2021 and 2020 amounted to nearly $5 trillion. The MBA forecasts mortgage refinancing will fall to $870 billion this year, the lowest since 2018’s $467 billion.
Hawaiiana Management Company, Ltd. Serving Kauai’s Condo & Community Associations with award-winning service
US average long-term mortgage rates rise; 30-year at 3.22%
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awaiiana currently serves nearly 60 residential and commercial associations on the Island of Kauai. Kauai native Sunshine Ruiz Hatto serves as Hawaiiana’s Vice President RI .DXDL 2SHUDWLRQV IURP LWV RIŅFH DW WKH .XNXL *URYH ([HFXWLYH &HQWHU LQ /LKXH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Average longterm U.S. mortgage rates rose in the past week to start the new year. They reached their highest level since May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, yet remained historically low. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan increased to 3.22% this week from 3.11% last week. A year ago, the 30-year rate stood at 2.65%. The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, popular among those refinancing their homes, rose to 2.43% from 2.33% last week. Many economists expect mortgage rates to rise this year after the Federal Reserve announced last month that it would begin dialing back its monthly bond purchases — which are intended to lower long-term rates — to tamp down accelerating inflation. But even with the expected three rate increases in 2022, the Fed’s benchmark rate would still sit below 1%. In addition to stronger inflation, experts expect robust economic growth and the tight labor market to continue to push rates higher. The government reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remained at historically low levels, suggesting that the job market remains strong. U.S. jobless claims rose by 7,000 last week to 207,000. The highly transmissible omicron variant so far does not appear to have triggered significant layoffs. Employers are reluctant to let workers go at a time when it’s so tough to find replacements. The U.S. posted 10.6 million job openings in November, the fifth-highest monthly total in records reaching back to 2000.
Sunshine Ruiz Hatto Vice President Kauai Operations
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99% retention rate among clients Local (vs. mainland) banking All employees are in Hawaii Serving nearly 60 associations on Kauai
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For more information about Hawaiiana’s services, contact Sunshine Ruiz Hatto at 792-0515 or email sunshine@hmcmgt.com.