As the Federal Reserve has kicked off its rate easing cycle, Chase Home Lending head of refinance and home equity Nina Gidwaney joins Wealth! to discuss how home buyers and owners should be considering their mortgages. Gidwaney believes that now is a good time for homeowners to consider getting a lower mortgage rate. “If rates go down below 6%, about 4.7 million customers would become in the money for a refinance opportunity. And that’s a significant amount of customers who may have bought a home in the last 2 or 3 years and are sitting on that higher rate… and could take advantage of a lower payment,” she explains. The lock-in effect has put pressure on the housing market as owners with low mortgage rates are holding off on listing their homes. However, as interest rates and mortgage rates come down, Gidwaney believes the lock-in effect could break up. She tells Yahoo Finance that prospective homebuyers “will start to be willing to purchase a home and be willing to take on a higher rate. And people have to move. They have to sell their home and they have to do other things in their life. So I think it’s a great time for customers to start to do that.” As the Fed’s rate-cutting cycle is largely already priced into mortgage rates, she advises consumers not to try to time the market when looking to buy a home. Instead, she encourages them to speak with mortgage professionals to ensure they receive the best possible rate. Home prices hit a record high in June, and with many choosing to stay in their homes for longer, Gidwaney believes that homeowners should leverage their increased equity: “With mortgage rates the lowest that they’ve been basically all year, it is a very good time for customers to consider taking that equity and getting a cash-out [refinance], consolidating some of their higher-interest debt, like their credit card or auto loan debt, reducing their overall credit profile. It is a very good time, also, for customers to think about getting a HELOC [home equity line of credit] and using that home equity to their advantage.”
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