Homes are significantly more affordable today because of these low FHA loan rates.  We’ve been hovering around 5% for quite some time.

When is the best time to buy a home?  If housing prices were to jump a whopping 5% in just a few months, it wouldn’t be as expensive as getting a 6% rate instead of a 5% rate.

Example:  If a home jumped from $100,000 to $105,000, the payment would go up somewhere around $25-30.  If the home priced stayed steady at $100,000, but rates jumped from 5% to 6%, the increase in payment would be more than double at just over $60 extra dollars per month.

The FHA mortgage rates, not prices, have been driving this affordability.

So, when’s it going to end?

Watch inflation.   Mortgage rates are highly responsive to inflation.

By definition, inflation is when a currency loses its value; when what used to cost $2.00 now costs $2.15. As consumers, we perceive inflation as goods becoming more expensive.  However, it’s not that goods are more expensive, per se. It’s that the dollars used to buy them are worth less.

This is a big deal to mortgage rates because mortgage bonds are denominated, bought, and sold in U.S. dollars.  As the dollar loses value to inflation, therefore, so does the value of every mortgage bond in existence. When bonds lose their value, investors don’t want them and bond prices fall.  Mortgage rates move opposite of bond prices.

Prices down, rates up.

In today’s market, the relationship between inflation and mortgage rates is helping home buyers. The Cost of Living made its smallest annual gain in 6 years last month and the Fed has repeatedly said that inflation will stay low for some time. The combination is driving investors to buy mortgage bonds which, in turn, is suppresses rates.

So long as it lasts, the cost of homeownership will remain relatively low. Combined with the expiring tax credit, these FHA interest rates have never been lower.