Hey folks, welcome back to another edition of the Inside Track. I am your host, Joe Libin, at Latitude Lending here in Salt Lake City. As one of Salt Lake City’s top independent mortgage brokers, I get asked questions all the time about how much it costs to buy a house, or refinance a house for that matter. It’s all the same to some extent.
I’ve got a couple quick things for you on how much it costs and where interest rates have been, because that obviously has everything to do with how much it costs. I want to show you where interest rates have been lately, going back to about the middle of May. You can pull this up yourself. This is from Freddie Mac. Every week they publish a weekly survey of where interest rates are, and the data goes back to 1971. If you’re super nerdy and want to see where things have been, you can go to freddiemac.com and look at the Primary Market Survey archive page.
This year, 30-year interest rates have been hovering pretty much in the mid-sixes ever since the war broke out and things went up. They’ve come down a little bit recently, but they’ll probably move back into the mid-sixes after some of the recent news.
So, how much does it cost? If you buy a home right now, the purchase prices I’m showing are based on putting 5% down. On the lower end, I’m baking in what is most likely an HOA fee because it’s probably a condo, townhome, or planned unit development. If you buy something in the $250,000, $300,000, $350,000, or $400,000 range with 5% down, these are the corresponding payments. We’ve actually been helping some folks buy in these price ranges. If you’re looking in that range, or you know someone who is, the HOA fee is going to have a lot to do with where that final payment ends up.
These are the monthly all-in payments, including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance with 5% down. As you move up the range, if you buy something around $600,000 with 5% down, you’re looking at about a $4,200 monthly house payment. Again, that’s principal, interest, taxes, and insurance based on interest rates in the mid-sixes. Taxes can vary quite a bit between counties and even between neighborhoods, but on average, that’s what you’re looking at.
As far as a ballpark figure, I hope this is helpful. If you know someone looking to buy a new home—friends, family, or coworkers—I would love to help them. I’m always happy to go over numbers like this, but at least this gives you a good base of comparison. It is still a great time to be a buyer. It’s a bit of a strange market. There’s more inventory now than we’ve had in the past, but the good homes still receive multiple offers and sell quickly if they’re priced correctly and in the right location.
Hope this helps. As always, never too busy. If you have questions, please reach out. Thanks for watching, and we’ll talk to you soon. Take care.
