Buying A Home In Northern Virginia In 2018 – Part 1

Buying A Home In Northern Virginia In 2018 – Part 1

Buying a home is a big decision and it takes proper planning; both in the form of planning financially and making a plan that's best for your own personal timing. We sat down with senior loan officer Brian Pawsat of Caliber home loans to talk about what he’s seeing for mortgage rates and down payments in 2018. We also picked his brain about the Northern Virginia real estate market.

Mortgage rates – they’re on the rise. We’ve all been talking about it for years but, it’s really happening. As of today’s post they’re over 4% for a 30 year fixed. An increase in mortgage rates makes the biggest impact on buying power. In Northern Virginia the current average sale price is $500,000 with an average loan amount of $400,000. If rates increase just as little as 1% that would reduce buying power by $50,000 assuming the buyer wants the same monthly payment. Another way to look at it would be based off a $400,000 loan if rates increase 1% the payment would go up by $260 per month.

Down Payment – this is different for every buyer but, we want to make sure that if you’re considering buying a home this year that you know you don’t have to put down 20%. There are other options that are available. A 10% down payment is something we see frequently. It really comes down to each individual borrower’s profile. Selecting an experienced loan officer that you trust is important, they can show you what your options are and help you decide what down payment is best for you. Brian mentions in the below video that he has programs that enable as little as 3% down.

Read more in our full article.