Today's homebuyers have their mortgage rate tipping point, and it's artificially low

Home » Business » Today’s homebuyers have their mortgage rate tipping point, and it’s artificially low

Homes in Centreville, Maryland, US, on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Nathan Howard | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesToday’s homebuyers are exceptionally sensitive to mortgage rates with house prices so high — and they’ve found their tipping point.After years of government intervention following the great recession and the first years of the Covid-19 pandemic that kept mortgage rates artificially low, today’s buyers have a skewed view of what “normal” mortgage rates are.The majority of potential homebuyers, 71%, say they will not accept a 30-year fixed mortgage rate over 5.5%, according to a survey done in March by John Burns Research and Consulting. The current rate, however, is around 6.4%.In addition, 62% of buyers said they believed that a “historically normal mortgage rate” was below 5.5%. The average going back to 1971 is 7.75%, according to Freddie Mac.”Our consulting team has witnessed this across the country, noting that home builders who choose to subsid …