If you are about to buy a house, the chances are that you are also about to submit a mortgage loan application. It means that you are exploring different options, i.e., loans and interest rates. After all, these are fixed, meaning that you have to carefully think about how much money you can afford a month.
At the same time, mortgage rates are affected by multiple factors, and it probably is a good idea to investigate these. This way, you will be able to understand what could potentially happen, what changes might occur, and how they could affect your monthly payment.
Well, in this article, we will introduce you to the correlation between the stock market and mortgage interest rates. What is the connection between these two, and what type of effect can they have on each other?
They impersonate the economy
Before we discuss the connection between the stock market and mortgage rates, let’s talk about this. You will probably say that it is completely natural that both of these mimic the economy, but what does this exactly mean?
Well, basically, when the economy is steady, both of these increase. However, when things go wrong, these tend to follow, as it is to be expected, i.e., they fall. But why does this happen? Well, when investors get worried about the health of finances and the economy, they tend to move their money and invest in bonds, since they can rest assured they will get their funds back. As you might know, there is no such thing when it comes to the stock market.
What is the influence of the bond market?
Even though the stock market and interest rates aren’t closely connected, the same cannot be said for the mortgage rates and bonds. We have already explained that the investors tend to move their money to the bond market, and when this happens, as you can assume, the price of the bonds increases and the yield decreases. This is the main rule of the law of demand.
This bond yield is the standard for most of these rates, some of which are credit card, mortgage, auto loan rates, and so on. So, put simply, when there are many mortgage bonds on the market, the demand is lower, which also means that interest rates are lower. Nevertheless, if the number of bonds was to stay the same, and the demand was to increase, the interest rates would also rise.
Federal Reserve also plays a role
The most important task of the US Federal Reserve is to keep an eye on the inflation, that is, to ensure that it is stable. If inflation were to rise significantly, without control, it would decrease the value of the American dollar internationally. So, to prevent this from happening, they monitor the mortgage bond market and are always prepared to intervene if they noticed any signs of trouble.
What do they do? Basically, they lower the mortgage rates. They do this by buying a lot of bonds to decrease interest rates. On the other hand, if they find it necessary, they sell these bonds, and therefore, raise the Fed Funds rate, i.e., the rate at which they lend the money to the banks.
Applying for a mortgage
Now that we have explained the main factors that affect the interest rates, let us give you some practical tips on how to find the best loan for you. Obviously, first things first, you have to do thorough research, so our initial advice is to visit the pureloan website to explore some of your options.
The next thing you have to do is set a budget. If you want to get approved on your first try, you have to be realistic, and therefore, apply for a reasonable amount of money. The lenders determine this amount by looking at your debt-to-income ratio. Basically, they calculate what percentage of your monthly income you spend on paying off debts. There are a few rules here, so you should definitely contact the lender you have chosen to help you with this calculation. What’s more, if you are not sure about the funds you could get, you should ask them to do this calculation, to figure out what your budget should be.
If you are told that you cannot apply for a big loan, or at least the one you need to purchase the house you want, there are two main things you can do to boost your debt-to-income ratio. Naturally, your first option is to increase your monthly income. You can start looking for a better-paid job, work on getting a promotion, or think about different ways to earn some money on the side. On the contrary, this isn’t an option for many people, so most of them opt for reducing their debt by paying off different loans they already have before applying for the mortgage.
Furthermore, don’t forget about the credit score. The better your credit score is, the better interest rates you will get. Yes, this can save you thousands of dollars, so you should do your best to improve it. Basically, you can start by paying off the debts, paying all your bills on time, and also avoid opening new accounts, but instead, managing the ones you already have.
In addition, there is another thing you can do to lower your monthly payment, and it has nothing to do with the interest rate. When you get approved and receive the loan, you will also have to pay for the private mortgage insurance. Nevertheless, you can eliminate this expense by having a down payment of at least 20%. If you don’t have any other debts and expenses, you should try to save as much money as you can for this payment. Just try to calculate how much you will be saving in the future, and you will understand that denying yourself some small pleasures now can be quite beneficial in the time to come.