Anyone who is buying a home with a mortgage almost certainly talks to their lender about interest rates. With real estate market trends defined by some of the highest interest rates in decades and annual home price growth reaching its lowest level in more than a decade, purchasing a property is an undertaking that requires buyers to look at the data and do the math.

The current environment is also opening up rate locks to become a negotiation tactic — a technique that falls in and out of favor with real estate trends. 

In this episode, host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down with CoreLogic Principal Economist Molly Boesel to discuss what rate locks are, why they are trending in the housing market and what that may mean for lenders looking to retain or gain new business.

In This Episode:

• 3:19 – What are rate locks and why are they trending?
• 6:24 – Mortgage rate locks come at a price. Does that make them a valuable negotiation tactic?
• 10:11 – Erika Stanley goes over the numbers in the housing market.
• 11:31 – Maiclaire talks about using rate locks as a negotiation tactic when buying her home.
• 13:09 – Are mortgage rate buydowns also becoming more common in this market?
• 16:30 – Are mortgage rate buydowns and rate locks the only tactics available to reduce monthly mortgage payments?

Links: CoreLogic’s monthly Home Price Index (HPI) 

Up Next: Has the Economy Locked in US Housing Market Price Stagnation?

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